Travis Kelce Pinpoints the Moment He Knew He Was Starting to “Really Fall” for Girlfriend Taylor Swift
“That’s my girl, that’s my lady.”
It was a big weekend for the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce relationship: the latter made his Eras Tour stage debut during Swift’s third show at London’s Wembley Stadium on Sunday, surprising concertgoers by joining his girlfriend for her “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” outfit change. According to People, “Kelce stepped in for the dancer who usually carries Swift onstage during the segment, smiling as he gently put the singer down on a red couch in the middle of the stage.” Donning a tuxedo and top hat, Kelce did Swift’s “faux touch-up during the segment, dusting his girlfriend’s face with powder as the crowd cheered,” the outlet reports.
That’s not the only milestone the two are staring down: unbelievably, one of the world’s most famous couples is on the verge of celebrating their one year anniversary—it seems simultaneously like they’ve been together forever but also five seconds (or maybe that’s just this writer’s take on it all). Though they started dating last summer, the couple didn’t make their public debut until September 24, 2023, when Swift attended a Kansas City Chiefs game that her new beau was playing in at Arrowhead Stadium. (Kelce plays tight end for the team.) It was right around this time that Kelce began to really fall for Swift, he said on an episode of Barstool Sports’ “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast—when Swift eschewed security and loads of attention for just, you know, being kind of normal at her first Chiefs game, which saw the squad face off against the Chicago Bears.
“She really won me over with that one,” Kelce said, noting that Swift wanted to “be around family and friends, and experience this with everybody”—and walked through the front door just like everybody else, even though Kelce had offered to arrange for Swift to arrive at Arrowhead incognito.
“She just walked right through the front door,” he said. There was no “talking to security, making sure she gets to her [seat]” and, he thought to himself, “Damn, she’s in the madness. She wants to be a part of it. She wants to support me and do things like that.”
And that’s when Kelce began to really, as they say, catch feelings.
“She’s very self-aware,” Kelce said. “And I think that’s why I really started to really fall for her, was how genuine she is around friends [and] family. It can get crazy for somebody with that much attention…and she just keeps it so chill and so cool.”
He also praised how Swift “understands situations”—like when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl earlier this year—and said that no one really gave him “shit” in the locker room when dating rumors about the two first started after Swift’s inaugural Chiefs game in September 2023. (The two confirmed their romance the next month, when they stepped out holding hands at a Saturday Night Live afterparty, People reports.)
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“Nobody knew what was going on,” Kelce said. “[It was] really all over the place. I think it was…we kind kept it between us as much as we could. But once she came to a game, obviously it was all poppin’ from there.”
Kelce admitted that it's his desire to “keep things private” about their relationship, but also added that “at the same time, I’m not here to hide anything…that’s my girl, that’s my lady,” he said, and added that he’s “proud of that.”
Of the ample amount of attention the two receive on a daily basis, “We’ve had fun with just about every aspect of it,” Kelce said. “It’s just, when you’re at home, you want privacy, and you don’t always get that.”
Just as Swift attended a good many of Kelce’s Chiefs games last football season, he’s traveled to five continents to see the Eras Tour over the past year. He told the podcasts hosts of the shows that “Dude, the concerts are electric,” he said. “She’s having fun up there, so it’s like I can enjoy seeing her in her element, killing it onstage. I love the show, man. She’s got bangers.”
Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.
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