Taylor Swift has been donating $3000 to fans suffering financial hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ singer reached out to several of her supporters via private message asking for their PayPal details to gift the sums after reading about their struggles online.
Samantha Jacobson had written on Tumblr that she’d lost her "only source of income" after the cocktail bar she worked in in Disney World, Florida, closed down for a month due to the pandemic, prompting Taylor to get in touch and offer to help her pay her bills.
Samantha, 24, told People magazine: "I was in shock. I was just speechless. I couldn’t believe someone I had looked up to and love and respected for so long has reached out with such generosity.
"It’s all gonna go to bills right now. I applied for unemployment and I’m looking to pick up a temp job, so this is really helpful right now at a time of uncertainty."
Holly Turner’s Tumblr post about her concerns she’d have to leave New York due to the pandemic and its impact on her finances was also seen by Taylor and she was stunned when the 30-year-old singer "saved" her situation.
She told E! Online: "I saw that she had just started following me on Tumblr, so I was jumping around and screaming about that, and then I saw that the top post on Tumblr was about the fact that I was financially struggling and I thought, ‘There’s no way she’s following me because of that.’
"Then I started losing my mind even more… I wasn’t going to be able to stay in my apartment after May, if it weren’t for this… I have been working my entire life to be able to live in New York City and I thought that was going to be taken, and she saved that for me. So, I am just so, so, so grateful."
Another Twitter user named India had tweeted that her new job had been "cancelled for at least six months" and Taylor offered to give her money to "help ease the strain", meaning the fan’s rent is secure for the next few months.
She tweeted: "I will literally never be able to repay her for the sheer gesture of it–Never-mind the actual amount which is 3 mnths of rent for me.
"It’s a wonderfully humble example of acknowledging that her small change can really impact someone else. I feel seen. Thanks, @taylorswift13.(sic)"
Taylor Swift helps cash-strapped fans
