Billionaire pop star Taylor Swift announced she is engaged to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, two years after the couple began their highly publicised relationship that has captivated Swifties and become a major talking point on NFL broadcasts.
Key Takeaways
- Swift announced her engagement in a post on Instagram on Tuesday afternoon, including pictures of the couple embracing in a flower garden and one of Swift wearing a large diamond ring.
- “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” Swift wrote in the post’s caption.
- Swift’s post was set to her own song, “So High School,” which she released last year, a song about the feeling of young love that fans have theorized is about her relationship with Kelce.
- The engagement comes weeks after Swift joined Kelce and his brother Jason on their “New Heights” podcast, where they broke podcast viewership records as Swift announced her forthcoming album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
- Swift and Kelce began dating in 2023, which drew immediate media attention as Swift made several high-profile appearances at Chiefs games throughout the NFL season.
How Did Swift And Kelce Start Dating?
During Swift’s record-shattering Eras Tour in 2023, Kelce said on his “New Heights” podcast he attended her July show in Kansas City, where he made her a customized friendship bracelet—a tradition among Swifties throughout the tour—and intended to give her his number, though he said he wasn’t able to speak with her.
Dating rumors swirled for weeks, and in September 2023, Kelce said he “threw the ball in her court,” stating in an interview that he had invited Swift to a Chiefs game at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium. “I’ve seen you rock the stage at Arrowhead. You might have to come see me rock the stage at Arrowhead and see which one’s a little more lit,” Kelce said he told Swift. On Sept. 21, 2023, Swift attended her first of many Chiefs games, and in the following months, the pair was spotted holding hands in New York City.
Swift later clarified in her December 2023 TIME Person of the Year profile that when she was first spotted at a Chiefs game months earlier, the two were already a couple. “This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” Swift told Time. “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other.”
How Has Swift’s Relationship With Kelce Impacted The NFL?
Swift’s relationship with Kelce has been credited with boosting the Chiefs’ fan base and increasing merchandise sales. Days after Swift’s first Chiefs game appearance in September 2023, sports merchandising company Fanatics told Axios sales of Kelce’s jerseys had spiked by 400%, and ticket seller StubHub said demand for Chiefs tickets jumped 175%.
Billionaire Clark Hunt, owner and CEO of the Chiefs, said earlier this month Swift has “done an amazing job, unintentionally, of increasing our female fanbase,” stating the gender ratio went from about split to about 57% women, which he believes is the highest percentage of female fans among all NFL teams.
Some football fans, though, have complained about how often Swift is shown during NFL broadcasts when she attends Kelce’s games. Last year, a New York Times report found Swift is typically shown for only about 25 seconds during three-hour-long NFL broadcasts.
Swift addressed backlash to her NFL appearances in her TIME Person of the Year profile: “I’m just there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”
Forbes Valuation
Swift is worth $1.6 billion, according to Forbes estimates. She’s the only person to have made the billionaire ranks based solely on the value of her music catalog and concert tours. Swift became a billionaire in 2023 following the success of the Eras Tour, and she is the wealthiest woman in music.
What We Don’t Know
When or where Swift and Kelce plan to tie the knot.
What To Watch For
Swift is due to release “The Life of a Showgirl,” her 12th studio album, on Oct. 3.
