Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are the celebrity couple of the year, with fans desperate to get their hands on any information about the loved-up duo.
Thankfully, Kelce has given them exactly what they want, revealing how the two of them first met—and it was all thanks to Swift’s team.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end has been linked to the pop superstar since September, and the couple appeared to go public with an evening out in New York in October. This year, Swift has shown up to multiple Kansas City Chiefs games and, more recently, Kelce was spotted at Swift’s Eras Tour show in Argentina.
It’s common knowledge in the Swiftie fandom that Kelce first tried to meet the singer-songwriter by giving her a friendship bracelet with his phone number when he was at her Arrowhead concert in July. He explained on his podcast New Heights, which he hosts alongside brother Jason Kelce, that his attempt to do so was blocked. Now he’s told the Wall Street Journal that soon after the episode aired, he got help from inside Swift’s team for the pair of them to finally meet.
He said he had “someone playing Cupid” and got the shock of a lifetime when he looked down at his phone and received a text from Swift. According to the footballer, Swift told him exactly what was going on and how he got lucky to have her reach out.
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Newsweek reached out to representatives for Swift and Kelce for comment via email Tuesday.
“She’ll probably hate me for saying this, but…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,” he explained.
While Kelce didn’t go into details about their first date, he said he managed to not be nervous. His core group proved to be the nervous ones however, as Kelce said everyone around him was telling him to not “f*** this up.”
As Kelce and Swift continued to see each other, the footballer made the decision to not comment on the budding relationship to the media. He explained: “That was the biggest thing to me: make sure I don’t say anything that would push Taylor away.”
His mother, Donna Kelce, was also worried about how to best handle questions about the duo as she didn’t want to ruin their connection while it was new. According to the Wall Street Journal, Donna Kelce still berates herself for how she handled a question about Swift on the Today show.
She tried not to seem too excited, but she came out as unimpressed, so Kelce called her to tell her that she had done a fantastic job. Donna Kelce went on to tell the Wall Street Journal that her son is the happiest that she’s ever seen him.
As Kelce and Swift’s relationship continues to grow, Kelce has become more comfortable talking about it. In the interview, he called Swift “hilarious” and “a genius,” and shared how the pair of them share compatible worldviews, as they both think family is of the utmost importance. He has, however, had to learn how to cope with her level of fame.
“Obviously I’ve never dated anyone with that kind of aura about them…. I’ve never dealt with it,” Kelce said. “But at the same time, I’m not running away from any of it…. 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. When she acts like that I better not be the one acting all strange.”
Kelce and Swift’s relationship has been heating up over recent weeks. When the NFL star was in the audience at Swift’s November 11 concert in Buenos Aires, she tweaked the lyrics to her hit song “Karma” to include a nod to Kelce.
“Karma is the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me,” Swift sang.
The original lyrics are: “Karma is the guy on the screen, coming straight home to me.”
Once the show ended, video footage online showed Swift running backstage into the arms of Kelce, who kissed her.
