This is sure to create more bad blood… Last week, we reported that Taylor Swift and her flavor of the month, Calvin Harris, dethroned musical powerhouse Jay Z and Beyoncé as the highest-paid celebrity couple.
Now, Forbes has reported that pop star Katy Perry has been named the highest paid queen bee, beating Taylor Swift to the top spot after earning $135M over the past 12 months. Ellen DeGeneres, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé Knowles, and Kim Kardashian’s millions followed not too far behind in the women’s category, although they didn’t make it into this year’s top ten highest paid celebs, which was more than 75% male.
The “Dark Horse” recording artist was also the third-highest-paid celebrity in the world this year, preceded by champion boxers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Now if that isn’t impressive, we don’t know what is. However, this is no surprise for Perry’s fans, as she’s had a solid career, selling 11 million albums and 81 million singles since her quiet debut as Katy Hudson back in 2001.
Joining Perry on the list of top-ten earners are her perceived rival 25-year-old Swift, Howard Stern, Garth Brooks, James Patterson, Robert Downey Jr., and Christiano Ronaldo and pop group One Direction.
Although DeGeneres came in at spot 12, earning a modest $75 million and Bey at spot 33 on Forbes list of top 100 celebrity earners. Only 16 women made it into Forbes top 100 list of highest paid earnings this year, proving that there is still a huge disparity among paychecks for female and male talent.
