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Taylor Swift Discusses Caregiver Role After Her Father Had Quintuple Bypass Surgery
Swift says her dad’s doing ‘incredibly well’
Taylor Swift discusses her caregiver role after father, Scott Swift has quintuple bypass surgery.
AARP (From left: Brooke Sutton/Getty Images, Michael Tran/AFP via Getty Images)
Add family caregiver to Taylor Swift’s long résumé.
The global pop star recently shared her caregiving experience with her father, Scott Swift, 73. He required quintuple bypass surgery this summer after doctors found five blocked arteries during a resting stress test.
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Appearing on the New Heights podcast hosted by Jason and Travis Kelce, Taylor, who was sitting next to Travis, her NFL star boyfriend, said she, mother Andrea Swift, 67, and brother Austin Swift, 33, were by her father’s side after the surgery.
“My brother, my mom and I were each taking shifts in the ICU and staying with him 24/7,” she said.
A quintuple bypass surgery involves taking blood vessels from another part of the body and transplanting them onto the affected heart vessels to reroute blood flow around the blockages, according to Verywell Health.
The Grammy-winning artist noted that taking care of her dad felt like a “parent-child reversal in a lot of ways.” She compared her dad to a teenager because her brother told her he was Facetiming his friends all night and needed his phone taken away so he could recover.
The “Shake It Off” singer said she remembers her dad building “play sets and swing sets and cribs” for her when she was young, but now she is responsible for assembling his medical equipment.
“I’m building his shower chair and his walker and his bed,” Taylor said. “It’s just surreal, man. We just all moved in with him the whole summer, pretty much.”
She was also helping her father walk “on his harness,” a device used to support his chest after surgery. She called him “the loveliest patient ever” and said he’s doing “incredibly well.”
“He just kept saying ‘thank you’ over and over again,” she added.
The caregiving didn’t stop there. Swift also mentioned that Andrea recently got a “new knee” and is “doing great.”
“She’s scampering around,” Swift said. "We’re not quite at ‘scampering,’ but she’s doing great.”
Andrea’s knee replacement comes after she battled breast cancer twice, in 2019 and 2015.
Swift is one of several celebrities who have recently shared their caregiving experiences.
Actor Kate Beckinsale, 52, publicly shared the loss of her mother, Judy Loe, to cancer in July.
“She died the night of July 15th in my arms after immeasurable suffering,” Beckinsale wrote on Instagram. “I have not picked all the best photos, nor the best videos, because I cannot bear to go through my camera roll yet.”
Former first lady Michelle Obama, 61, was a caregiver for her mother, Marian Robinson, who died in May 2024.
“Her last bout of illness, she was with me in Hawaii, in our home in Hawaii, which was a blessing, right? Because she was forced to let me take care of her,” Obama said on NPR’s Wild Card With Rachel Martin podcast. The New York Times best-selling author said her mother “didn’t want to be a burden” to her, including her time receiving medical care.
AARP offers advice for those preparing for heart surgery. These include talking with your doctor about steps you can take beforehand, such as losing weight and changing your diet, enlisting a health advocate, avoiding alcohol and considering a cardiac rehab program after the procedure.
For more information on caregiving, including balancing caregiving while working, caring for a loved one who is dealing with coronary artery disease and managing in-home care, visit aarp.org/caregiving.
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