Taylor Swift forced to hire extra security to deal with death threats

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Taylor Swift says being flanked with security is the only way of handling the numerous threats she receives from men.

Although the singer, 24, likes driving herself, she hasn’t been able to for six years for safety reasons –she is chauffeur-driven or a security car always drives behind any vehicle that she’s travelling in.

“[It’s] because [of] just the sheer number of men we have in a file who have showed up at my house, showed up at my mom's house, threatened to either kill me, kidnap me, or marry me,” she told Esquire.

Having constant security wasn’t something that appealed to Swift because she “really values normalcy”.

However, as she became increasingly famous, implementing heightened safety measures was a way of ensuring that she never felt scared.

In March, she was granted a restraining order against a man who believed he was married to the singer, vowing to kill any man who threatened to come between them.

Over the past six months, Swift has been forced to deal with two separate incidents of trespassing on her Rhode Island property and in July 2013 another man was arrested after sharing threatening the singer on Facebook then allegedly carrying a “Taylor Swift is Satan” poster to her Philadelphia show.

“This is the strange and sad part of my life that I try not to think about,” she said.

“I try to be lighthearted about it, because I don't ever want to be scared. I don't want to be walking down the street scared. And when I have security, I don't have to be scared.”