It’s a love story; she said yes. Taylor Swift, not long ago hailed as the world’s most famous “childless cat lady”, is tying the knot. She announced her engagement to footballer Travis Kelce, her partner of two years, on Instagram on Tuesday. The post was liked more than 14.5m times in just two hours, and reportedly crashed the platform for many users.
Kelce is a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. He and Swift publicly debuted their relationship in September 2023, when she attended the Chiefs’ game against the Chicago Bears in Kansas City, Missouri. (The Chiefs won.) The fact she popped up in Kelce’s private suite alongside his mother, Donna, and other friends and family, and left with him for a private afterparty, led fans to speculate that this wasn’t their first date.
Swift and Kelce had in fact been publicly linked since the summer of 2023, but this was no tabloid gossip-mongering – the source of the speculation began with Kelce himself. Attending her Eras concert at Arrowhead Stadium in July 2023, Kelce tried to get backstage to meet Swift and give her a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it. He later told the story on New Heights, the podcast he hosts with his brother Jason, saying he was “disappointed” and “a little butt-hurt” to miss out on the introduction.
Kelce’s name-drop on his podcast was quick to reach Team Swift – and clearly piqued her curiosity. Weeks later, news outlets reported that the pair were “hanging out”. He eventually responded to the rumours in mid-September. “I threw the ball in her court, and I told her, ‘I’ve seen you rock the stage at Arrowhead. You might have to come see me rock the stage at Arrowhead’,” he said on The Pat McAfee Show. Swift popped up in his family box days later.
Part of fans’ excitement about the emergent “Tayvis” pairing derived from the fact that Kelce was seen as such a significant departure from Swift’s previous partners. In the past, she has been linked to fellow musicians (including John Mayer, Joe Jonas, Harry Styles, DJ Calvin Harris and the 1975 singer Matty Healy) and actors (Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hiddleston and, most recently, Joe Alwyn). Kelce not only bucked the pattern of fellow entertainers, but also captured Swifties’ imagination as being a stand-in for the popular jock Swift often pined for in the songs she wrote as a teenager.
The frenzy over Swift and Kelce’s relationship peaked on 1 October 2023, when Swift showed up at MetLife Stadium to watch the Chiefs play the New York Jets with a celebrity entourage, including Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, Sophie Turner, Sabrina Carpenter, Queer Eye chef Antoni Porowski and Hugh Jackman. The audience for that game peaked at more than 29 million viewers, making it the best-watched game since the February Super Bowl (in large part due to more female viewers) – largely thanks to Swift’s star power.
Swift and Kelce’s highly public appearances together, months after meeting, contrasted significantly with her earlier relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn. They kept a low profile over the six years they were together, based mostly in London. News of their breakup spread in early April 2023, weeks after the start of Swift’s globe-trotting Eras tour. “Tayvis” was born five months later.
They weren’t just quick to go public with their relationship, but quick to progress. In October, Swift and Kelce were photographed having “a PDA moment” (public display of affection) backstage at Saturday Night Live in New York, having both made surprise appearances on the show. The same month, Kelce was reported to have bought a new home, worth $6m, offering more privacy for his relationship. He later spoke admiringly of Swift’s handling of the attention on her: “The scrutiny she gets, how much she has a magnifying glass on her, every single day, paparazzi outside her house, outside every restaurant she goes to, after every flight she gets off – and she’s just living, enjoying life.”
In November, Kelce was photographed in the audience of Swift’s Eras Tour show in Argentina. She then amended the lyrics of her song Karma to refer to “the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me”, and was later filmed running off the stage and into his arms, sending fans into another frenzy.
Kelce, for his part, joked that Swift is his “good luck charm” on the field. Her frequent appearance at games has certainly been beneficial for the NFL, leading to significant spikes in viewership figures of women and girls. In January 2024, an eight-year-old Swiftie attended the Chiefs’ game against the Buffalo Bills in New York with the sole intention of meeting her idol – and was plucked from the crowd by Jason Kelce.
After her shout-out in Argentina, Kelce delighted fans by joining Swift on stage at Wembley for her reworked Eras Tour show, with a revised setlist to include songs from her new album The Tortured Poets Department. He carried her in his arms, fanned her and dusted her face with a makeup brush before she launched into I Can Do It With a Broken Heart. Two songs from that album, The Alchemy and So High School, were both understood by fans to refer to her relationship with Kelce.
Swift and Kelce’s relationship has often been described as a union of entertainment and sporting royalty; in the UK for the Eras Tour in June 2024, they met actual royalty. Swift’s selfie of the pair with Prince William, Prince George and Princess Charlotte also marked her making their relationship “Instagram official”.
In a barnstorming year for Swift, she broke yet another record at the MTV video music awards in September, where she became the most-awarded artist in the event’s history with her win for video of the year for Fortnite. She thanked Kelce in her acceptance speech: “Everything this man touches turns to happiness and fun and magic, so I want to thank him for adding that to our shoot.”
In September, weeks before the US presidential election, Swift endorsed Kamala Harris in an Instagram post she signed “childless cat lady” – a reference to Trump running mate JD Vance’s disparaging description of Democrat voters. The endorsement was received with relief by many Swift fans, not least given the support for Trump reported within Kelce’s wider family, but it was not enough to secure a victory for Harris. Swift’s Eras Tour finally concluded on 7 December after 149 shows, breaking numerous records, including for the biggest-selling tour in history.
Attending the Grammys in February this year, Swift incorporated a subtle shout-out to her partner, accessorising her Vivienne Westwood mini-dress with a body chain bearing his initial “T”.
Though known as Kelce’s “good luck charm”, Swift’s appearance in this year’s Super Bowl crowd was no match for the Philadelphia Eagles (her home town team), who defeated the Chiefs 40-22. She was reportedly given a frosty reception, and was booed by thousands in the crowd. With Trump just returned to the White House for a second term, commentators chalked up the heckling to Swift’s endorsement of Harris.
After the end of their respective “eras” – Swift’s concert tour and Kelce’s NFL season – the couple retreated from the public eye to enjoy the first quiet patch in their relationship – though not for long. In August, Swift announced a new album: The Life of a Showgirl, penned during the European leg of her Eras tour. She appeared on the Kelces’ podcast New Heights to dish the details, speaking for more than two hours – and affording fans an unprecedented level of access into her private life. She acknowledged the podcast’s part in the start of their relationship, saying of Kelce’s highly public wooing of her: “This is sort of what I’ve been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager.”
Kelce, for his part, spoke admiringly of his partner’s athleticism, intelligence and vocabulary. In a profile interview for GQ’s September issue, he swooned over Swift and their relationship: “Whenever I’m with her, it feels like we’re just regular people.”
The couple’s engagement announcement on Tuesday took some punters by surprise: after the New Heights episode, bets were placed for Swift to be the performer at next year’s Super Bowl and/or for Kelce to propose on the pitch. In fact, the couple got engaged almost two weeks ago, Kelce’s father confirmed to the press.
One of the five photos posted to Instagram on Tuesday was a closeup of Swift’s ring: a large diamond set in a yellow gold band. Tree Paine, Swift’s infamous publicist, confirmed only that the ring was designed by Kindred Lubeck and the diamond is an “old mine brilliant cut”.
Swift captioned the images with “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married”, a quote from her song So High School. For fans, as well as perhaps Swift herself, it’s nothing short of a fairytale romance – a nerd, pining from the bleachers, finding happy ever after with the homecoming king.
