Taylor Swift brought two young survivors of the horrifying Southport stabbing attacks backstage for a rare meet-and-greet at one of her recent Wembley Stadium shows.
On Sunday (August 18), Sami Foster, the mother of Autumn and Hope – two of the girls who attended the Taylor Swift-theme dance class – posted a carousel of photos to TikTok showing her daughters posing with Swift as well as Swift’s mother, Andrea.
In the pictures, one of the girls can be seen wearing a bandage around her wrist.
Quoting the lyrics from Swift’s song “Cardigan” – “You drew stars around my scars” – in the caption, Foster added: “The biggest thank you to @Taylor Swift and her mum for making the most magical night possible for us all. Thank you for bringing Hope & Autumn pure happiness last night & always.”
Foster’s family aren’t the only Southport victims to have joined Swift backstage, according to Variety, though the pop superstar has not publicized the meet-and-greets herself.
Days before Swift, 34, began her final run of London shows on August 15 she is understood to have personally reached out to the families of the three Southport stabbing victims: Bebe King, six, Alice Dasilva Aguire, nine, and Elside Dot Stancombe, seven.
“Taylor may not have spoken about Elsie Dot, Alice and Bebe on stage but she has reached out to their families. It is something that has weighed heavily on her mind,” a source told The Sun.
Following the July 29 attack, which left 10 others injured, Swift released a statement saying that she was “at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”
“The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously, and I’m just completely in shock…” she wrote on social media. “The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families, and first responders. These were just little kids at a dance class. I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”
Days after the tragedy, the suspect was identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana. He’s expected to stand trial next year for the murders of the three young girls.
In the weeks since the attack, false claims and disinformation about Rudakubana’s identity stoked violent riots in the area, including one outside a Southport mosque that led to 39 officers being injured, 27 of whom needed hospital treatment.
Footage showed crowds of men – at least one identified by antifascists Red Flare as an alleged member of the far-right Patriotic Alternative group – chanting and throwing bricks at riot police, who held shields to protect against incoming projectiles as a police van was set alight and other fires burned nearby.