On the public's assumption that 'Bad Blood' is about Katy Perry: “You’re in a[n] interview, and the writer says, ‘Who is that song about? That sounds like a really intense moment from your life.’ And you sit there, and you know you’re on good terms with your ex-boyfriend, and you don’t want him—or his family—to think you’re firing shots at him. So you say, ‘That was about losing a friend.’ And that’s basically all you say. But then people cryptically tweet about what you meant. I never said anything that would point a finger in the specific direction of one specific person, and I can sleep at night knowing that. I knew the song would be assigned to a person, and the easiest mark was someone who I didn’t want to be labeled with this song. It was not a song about heartbreak. It was about the loss of friendship.”
So, the song was about an ex-boyfriend, but she didn't want to admit to it because of the stigma attached to her songwriting she and the ex-boyfriend are on good terms, so she told the media that the song was about losing a friend.