Taylor Swift’s inner circle is about to expand with a tiny addition.
Taylor’s best friend, Abigail Anderson Berard (née Anderson), announced Wednesday night on Instagram that she and her husband, Charles Berard, are expecting the couple’s first child. Yes, Taylor’s going to be an auntie!
For her caption, Abigail borrowed a lyric from Taylor’s “But Daddy I Love Him” track off of her The Tortured Poets Department album. She wrote, “I’m having his babyyyy…” followed by a blue heart emoji. Abigail’s post included a photo of her in a loose black blouse that was unbuttoned just enough to show off her growing baby bump. She was also snacking on Cheez-Its.
The “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” singer later “liked” and commented on her friend’s announcement post, writing, “When the internet says ‘MOTHER’ I feel like this pic is actually what they mean.”
Taylor and Abigail’s friendship has a rich history. They met at Hendersonville High School in Hendersonville, Tennessee, their freshman year when Taylor was 15. In fact, they met on the first day of school.
“I have a lot of friends who do what I do. Either they’re actresses or singers or things like that,” Taylor told The Oprah Winfrey Show during an October 2009 appearance. “But my best friend, Abigail, we met when I was 15. First day of school freshman year we sat next to each other in English. She wanted to be a swimmer and go off on a college scholarship for swimming and I wanted to be a singer. Now she’s off at Kansas on a swimming scholarship and I’m singing.”
From complete strangers and a budding friendship to serving as the inspiration behind Taylor’s “Fifteen” off her second studio album, Fearless, Abigail’s proved to be a constant presence and pillar of strength in Taylor’s universe. And it all started with a chance meeting, as eloquently serenaded by Taylor in “Fifteen,” Verse 2:
You sit in class next to a red-head named Abigail / And soon enough you’re best friends / Laughing at the other girls / Who think they’re so cool / We’ll be out of here as soon as we can.
Abigail gave everything she had / To a boy who changed his mind / And we both cried.
While the lyrics to the song are deeply personal, it was Abigail who insisted Taylor release the song, hoping to help at least one girl who may be experiencing heartbreak.
“I remember I wrote a song called ‘Fifteen’ for my friend Abigail who is still just my best friend and you know, she been — God, she’s gone through a lot of changes in my life, and in her life,” Taylor gushed in an interview. “I wrote a song called ‘Fifteen’ that was about not just my life and journey at that age, but also hers. And I had to, you know, that as a situation where I played it for her and I was like, ‘This is just for you and it’s never gonna see the light of day if you don’t want it to.’ And she was like, ‘No, you need to put this out.’”
In May 2023, Taylor surprised fans at her Eras tour stop in Nashville when she sang an acoustic version of the iconic song and dedicated it to her “beautiful, red-headed high school best friend.” Abigail was spotted by fans singing along from the VIP tent at Bridgestone Arena.
In addition to being the inspiration behind the iconic 2008 song, Abigail also appeared in the music videos for hits like “Picture to Burn,” “I’m Only Me When I’m With You” and “New Romantics.”
Abigail, a vaunted swimmer at the University of Kansas who landed on the cover of Swimmer magazine’s July-August 2013 cover, is now a chief of staff for corporate development at the payment solutions company Celero Commerce. It’s presumably where she met Charles, who is the company’s chief technology officer. They tied the knot in September 2022. It’s unclear if Taylor attended that wedding, but by all accounts the folklore songstress did attend Abigail’s first wedding in September 2017 to photographer Matt Lucier. In fact, Taylor was a bridesmaid at that wedding. Abigail and Matt split some four years later.
Through it all, Taylor’s been by her side, and Abigail by hers. Her unbreakable bond with Taylor — coupled with her appearance in “Fifteen” and the 2020 documentary, Miss Americana — is why she’s become a mystical figure, an icon of sorts, among Swifties, who for so long revere those who both protect and exalt her at every turn. That Abigail’s as passionate fuels a friendship that’s as familial as it gets.
“A good girlfriend for me is someone who is an individual and has something that they are deeply passionate about,” Taylor once told Entertainment Tonight in 2014. “Abigail works with making sure that veterans from World War II get their compensation. Like, she’s so passionate about it and it couldn’t be more different from my career … but the fact that she is so passionate about what she does allows her to be able to relate to me on that level, that I’ms o dedicated to what I do.”
The pair have been by each others sides for nearly two decades. Abigail has become a staple at Swiftie events, including the 57th GRAMMYs where she acted as Taylor’s plus one on February 8, 2015.
While Taylor has been known to have the most iconic “Squad” in Hollywood — having had longtime friendships with the likes of Gigi Hadid, Selena Gomez, Blake Lively and Cara Delevingne to name a few — it’s the girl she met on the first day of high school who seems to be more like a sister to Taylor.
Taypedia 