Ever since Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s love story began last summer, they’ve been going from strength to strength – and it appears the footballer ‘ticks’ all of her boxes.
Taylor Swift is renowned for appearing to relate her hit songs back to her string of unsuccessful previous relationships, but it appears that she’s struck gold when it comes to current beau, Travis Kelce.
In the past, T-Swift opened up about what she looks for in a man, revealing that she has a checklist: “Are they honest, self-aware and slyly funny at the moments you least expect it? Do they show up for you when you need them? Do they still love you after they’ve seen you broken?
“Or after they’ve walked in on you having a full conversation with your cats as if they’re people? These are things a first impression could never convey.”
So when Taylor and Travis’s love story began last summer, it looked like he checked all of the boxes. American footballer Travis, “tight end” for the Kansas City Chiefs, went to see Taylor’s Eras Tour when it hit Kansas in July 2023.
He later spoke on his podcast New Heights With Jason And Travis Kelce, saying he’d tried to meet her and give her a friendship bracelet he’d made, but was “butt hurt” that she didn’t take him up on the request. “She doesn’t meet anybody, or at least she didn’t want to meet me, so I took it personal,” he admitted.
Taylor revealed that once she’d heard the podcast, it wasn’t long before they met up, saying, “This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell… We started hanging out right after that.”
Since then, the couple have been seen together a lot, with Taylor attending his football games, including the 2024 Super Bowl, and Travis, 34, flying across the world to attend her Eras Tour shows. They were also pictured together among the crowd at the Coachella music festival in April.
“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,” Taylor has said. “And we’re just proud of each other.”
Fans and music critics have been dissecting the lyrics of her latest album The Tortured Poets Department and the surprise 2am drop — TTPD: The Anthology — since its release in April, and many believe there are several cryptic references to Travis.
One of the most obvious is thought to be on track 15, The Alchemy, in which she uses sport phrases such as “touch down”, “warm the benches” and “winning streak” as she sings about a romantic connection. She also describes a moment thought to be a reference to Travis’s team’s Super Bowl victory.
Taylor sings: “Shirts off, and your friends lift you up, over their heads / Beer stickin’ to the floor, cheers chanted ’cause they said / There was no chance trying to be the greatest in the league / Where’s the trophy? He just comes, running over to me.”
