As Taylor Swift searched the crowds on the pitch at Baltimore’s M&T Bank stadium after the Sunday night game between the Kansas Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens last month, it could have been a scene from a corny film. When her eyes landed on her prize, superstar player Travis Kelce, her boyfriend of recent months, she broke into a wide smile. Holding on to the 6ft 5in ‘tight end’ (a proper NFL term, we are told) she celebrated the win for his team, the Chiefs, which would see them play at the Super Bowl in Las Vegas on February 11th. ‘Brilliant, I love you,’ Swift murmured to Kelce, lip readers declared, as the pair kissed as though millions weren’t watching.
As well as a seminal win for Kelce, this was a seminal moment in his relationship with Swift; by far their most public display of affection, after weeks of blurry photos of her cheering him on from a VIP stadium suite, or him waiting at the side of a stage for her to perform. These latest photos are a sure sign that their romance has become more serious than even the most dedicated Swifties might have previously realised.
According to insiders, 34-year-old Swift, who started dating Kelce last summer after they were introduced by a mutual friend he described as ‘Cupid’ in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, is smitten in a way they have never seen before. Kelce stated that he had ‘never dated anyone with that kind of aura about them’ and the feeling, say Swift’s friends, is mutual. This has a lot, one says, to do with how uninhibited Kelce is about fame in general. In Swift’s previous six-year relationship with The Favourite actor Joe Alwyn, privacy was their modus operandi; we rarely saw the couple together. Rather than walk red carpets, they were said to spend a lot of time holed up in their £8m Primrose Hill house. In one interview Alwyn said, ‘We live in a culture that is so increasingly intrusive... the more you give – and frankly, even if you don’t give it – something will be taken.’ Dating the most famous woman in the world and privacy aren’t the happiest of bedfellows, however, and they parted ways in April last year.
Enter Kelce, 34, who is apparently not only supremely unbothered by fame, but, in fact, is leaning into the viral nature of his own. He has a hit podcast, New Heights, that he hosts with his brother, former NFL star Jason, and a penchant for wearing outfits that have made him a street-style darling on TikTok. He had his own The Bachelor-style dating reality TV series called Catching Kelce, which ran for a season in 2016, and released a Christmas single with his brother (which went to number one in the US). It’s clear, Kelce doesn’t take himself too seriously, something that those close to Swift have identified as a winning factor in their relationship. ‘She has found someone who is not intimidated by her fame, but is also more than comfortable shouting about their love for each other from the rooftops,’ says Grazia’s source. ‘Travis is an extremely positive, uncomplicated guy who’s unabashedly himself and she loves that.’
‘She has never been happier. It’s pure romance for her and no one loves a love story like Taylor.’
Their relationship is causing waves in the way that only Swift knows how to, with recent stats claiming that her interest in the NFL had sparked a surge in new female football fans. The Apex Marketing Group even valued Swift’s association with the NFL at around $330m in terms of brand value to the Chiefs and the league. And, while engagement rumours rumble (Kelce was said by gossip site Page Six to have already ‘picked out a ring’), it seems that Swift and her man are setting themselves up for the long haul. They are said by sources to spend most of their time at Kelce’s Kansas home, though have also been seen in New York, where Swift has an apartment. Both have been welcomed into the other’s family, with Swift’s mother Andrea spotted at Chiefs games in the past few months, while Kelce was spied at a show on the Eras tour with her father Scott. Kelce says their values simply align. ‘Her team is her family. Her family does a lot of stuff in terms of the tour, the marketing, being around, so I think she has a lot of those values as well, which is right up my alley.’
Most of all, say those in the know, Swift feels comfortable to be herself despite the fact all eyes are on them. ‘She has never been happier,’ said a source. ‘It’s pure romance for her and no one loves a love story like Taylor.’