The feud between Eminem and Christina Aguilera started in the late 1990s/early 2000s when a TV comment from Christina about Eminem’s personal life and lyrics led to him dissing her in his songs, and it spiraled into a long-running pop‑culture beef.

What started the beef?

  • In a 1999 MTV special, Christina Aguilera talked about Eminem’s relationship with his then‑partner Kim, mentioning that they had secretly married and criticizing the violent themes in his songs about her.
  • Eminem felt she exposed private information and publicly judged him, which he later said upset him because she “put [him] on blast” over rumors about his personal life.

Eminem’s response in his music

  • Eminem fired back in his 2000 hit “The Real Slim Shady,” where he name‑checks Christina and mocks her for talking about his private life on MTV, adding crude lines implying sexual rumors about her.
  • He later referenced her again in other tracks and performances, keeping her as a recurring target in his lyrical jabs and onstage comments during the early 2000s.

Christina’s clapbacks

  • Christina pushed back in interviews, saying she spoke out because she was against domestic violence and found some of his lyrics disturbing, especially the ones about Kim.
  • On her 2002 song “Can’t Hold Us Down,” she addresses being attacked for speaking her mind, calling out double standards and “big talkers” who make up rumors, which many listeners read as a subtle response to Eminem.

Award shows and public tension

  • The tension was very visible at early‑2000s award shows like the MTV VMAs, where Eminem made snarky comments about Christina (and Britney) while accepting awards, reinforcing the sense of a very public feud.
  • At one point they did share a stage and there were hints of cooling off, but the awkwardness and media framing kept the narrative of “rap vs. pop princess” alive for years.

Later years and “is it still a thing?”

  • Even in the late 2010s, Eminem threw new references to Christina in his freestyle “Kick Off,” showing he still used her as a lyrical punchline long after the original MTV incident.
  • Christina, in a 2019 interview, called his comments “thirsty,” said the drama was basically the past for her, and criticized the idea of a male artist going at a female peer like that in the current climate.

TL;DR: They were beefing mainly because Christina publicly commented on Eminem’s secret marriage and his violent lyrics on MTV, and Eminem retaliated with harsh, ongoing disses in his songs and onstage, turning a single TV remark into a years‑long celebrity feud.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.