The unofficial story of the season’s romance, the one known so far, sounded like a movie: Travis Kelce liked Taylor Swift and when she went to Arrowhead Stadium last July, where he plays with the Kansas City Chiefs, he wanted to sing and give her one of the Bracelets that the singer’s followers make for her concerts. Instead of a song title, the bracelet had her phone number on it. But the attempt failed: She behaved very reservedly after her performances and he remained calm without giving her the bracelet. However, the story reached Swift, who was amused by the anecdote and decided to meet the American football player. Now, about four months later, they are the couple of the season. And it has now become known that the story wasn’t quite like that.
Because Travis Kelce, 34, gave a long interview in the Wall Street Journal – he’s on the cover of the December/January magazine, which goes on sale December 9th – in which he opened up about the singer, her relationship, how they met and how they are doing at the moment. Written by JR Moehringer, author of the memoirs of tennis player Andre Agassi and, more recently, Henry of England, Kelce speaks honestly about their high-profile romance. While Swift and those around her remain extremely secretive about her personal life – she hasn’t given interviews in years – Kelce has taken advantage of this moment of popularity to sit in front of the cameras and chat calmly and with the same naturalness with which she does it in front of the microphones of his weekly podcast “New Heights,” which he hosts with his brother, fellow American footballer Jason Kelce. A long lecture in which he explains that he is a shy man of few words. “But being around her and seeing how smart Taylor is is something that makes your head explode. “I learn every day,” he says.
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“There were definitely some of his acquaintances who knew who I was. Someone from his side asked him: “Hey, did you know he was coming?” I had someone who played Cupid for me,” the athlete tells the publication what that first contact was like in July. Even the 33-year-old artist’s family helped her search. “I think that [Swift] “He’s going to hate me for saying this…but when he got to Arrowhead, they gave him the big locker room as a locker room, and his little cousins took pictures in front of my locker,” Kelce admits. The singer herself later told him all this, as she was the one who contacted the player directly. In fact, one day he discovered that the artist had sent him a text message. And it was all thanks to this “Cupid,” as he calls this person, of a woman: “She told me exactly how everything happened and told me that she was lucky to get in touch with him.” [con Swift]“.
When the Pennsylvania singer was spotted at a Kelce game on September 24, some thought it was their first meeting. But not. The couple met in person in New York after “talking for a while,” he says. “I knew we could have a nice dinner and a conversation, and whatever came of it, keep going.” He says he went to the appointment calmly, but those around him were more nervous: “Everyone around me said me: ‘Don’t ruin it!’ And I told them, “Yes, yes, I understand.” The relationship developed slowly and, he admits, he wanted to be discreet and not say or do anything “that would alienate Taylor.”
Travis Kelce, on the cover of the December/January issue of The Wall Street Journal magazine. Maria Porcel Estepa
In the end, Kelce told his brother and mother Donna what he was feeling and what he was going through, explaining that he had “never” dated “anyone who had that kind of aura.” The player’s mother told the magazine that her son was “happier” than she had seen him in a long time. Kelce dated model Kayla Nicole from 2016 to 2020 and intermittently from this year to 2022. Swift, for her part, ended a more than six-year relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn last spring, with whom she kept a low profile and made few public appearances.
“I had never dealt with anything like this before. But at the same time, I’m not running away from it,” confesses Kelce about how this beginning of his relationship with the artist, who is now one of the most important in the world, is embedded in a year and a half tour and has more than 100 concerts that she has around the lead the whole world and made her a multi-millionaire. “The scrutiny she is under, like a magnifying glass that draws attention to her every day, with paparazzi outside her house and every restaurant she goes to, even after every flight she takes, and she just lives and enjoys it Life. “If she acts like that, I won’t be the one acting strange.” After that first fight, there were a few more, and eventually they were seen holding hands in New York, confirming the relationship. He attended her concert in Buenos Aires in mid-November and they ended up kissing, another sign that Swift has now decided to stop keeping so much secret about her life.
It is also important for Kelce that the singer shares with him a similar view of family, which is very important to both of them, and also a similar work ethic. “Everyone knows that I am a family man. For her, her team is her family. And his family does a lot of things in everything that has to do with his touring, his marketing and being together, so I think he has a lot of values, that’s right up my alley.”