Taylor Swift is opening up about the early days of her relationship with Travis Kelce. The pop icon, who turns 34 next week, offers a candid reflection on the high-profile romance in a new interview with Time as the magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year honoree.
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” she says. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other.”
Swift and Kelce went public in September, when the former stepped out to attend the her beau’s Kansas City Chiefs game against the Chicago Bears. The songstress’ surprise appearance made headlines, as she joined Kelce’s mother — Donna Kelce — in a private suite to cheer for the 34-year-old tight end in her signature, highly-animated fashion. Afterward, Swift and Kelce were seen leaving Arrowhead Stadium and driving to a local post-game party in the athlete’s Chevrolet Chevelle.
“By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date,” she continues.
“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” she declares. “The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”
Swift has become a regular fixture at Kelce’s games and appears to be close with his teammates’ wives, Brittany Mahomes and Lyndsey Bell.
She is aware, however, of the criticism surrounding how the NFL has handled coverage of her appearances at a handful of recent games.
“I don’t know how they know what suite I’m in,” she says. “There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once.”
She adds, “I’m just there to support Travis” and “I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”
Still, Swift notes that she is thoroughly enjoying her time learning the sport.
“Football is awesome, it turns out,” she jokes. “I’ve been missing out my whole life.”
Her support of the Chiefs has caused a playful rift between Kelce and his fellow NFL star brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce. Swift herself hails from Eagles country and her father, Scott Kingsley Swift, is a longtime fan of the Birds. Last month, the Kelce brothers jokingly squabbled on their New Heights podcast over a discrepancy in team loyalty after the elder Swift was seen wearing a Chiefs lanyard as he and Travis attended the singer’s Eras Tour concert together in Argentina.
Swift’s remarks about the start of her courtship with Kelce come weeks after the football star offered new details about how they connected in a cover story for WSJ. Magazine’s December/January issue.
Famously, Kelce previously said that he had attempted — unsuccessfully — to give Swift his phone number on a friendship bracelet when he attended her Eras Tour stop at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, earlier this year. He later issued a public invitation for the songstress to join him at one of his NFL games.
“There were definitely people she knew that knew who I was, in her corner [who said]: ‘Yo! Did you know he was coming?’ I had somebody playing Cupid,” Kelce revealed to WSJ. Magazine, admitting that he only learned of that story later, after he was shocked to discover a notification from Swift on his phone.
“She told me exactly what was going on and how I got lucky enough to get her to reach out,” he shared.
The matchmakers, apparently, were Swift’s young cousins who are fans of the two-time Super Bowl champion.
“She’ll probably hate me for saying this, but,” Kelce spilled, “When she came to Arrowhead, they gave her the big locker room as a dressing room, and her little cousins were taking pictures… in front of my locker.”
Meanwhile, Swift is at the top of her game amid a banner year. In addition to the Time honor, Swift also recently became the first entertainer to make it into the top 5 of Forbes‘ World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list, earning the no. 5 spot.
“This is the proudest and happiest I’ve ever felt, and the most creatively fulfilled and free I’ve ever been,” Swift tells Time in her first media interview in four years. “Ultimately, we can convolute it all we want, or try to overcomplicate it, but there’s only one question.”
Adopting what the writer describes as a “booming voice,” Swift continues: “Are you not entertained?”
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