Though he couldn’t give the singer his number at her 2023 Eras Tour performance in Missouri, Swift took notice of Kelce’s podcast comments and their love story began not long after
It’s been an entire year since Travis Kelce made his first, fateful comments about his future girlfriend, Taylor Swift. And even the New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce podcast thinks so, posting on X (formerly Twitter) that “it’s been one hell of a year 😅.”
On July 26, 2023, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, now 34, recounted his experience at Swift’s global smash Eras Tour on his home field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. during a chat on his podcast with his brother, Jason.
“I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings,” the football star said during the episode, adding that he would’ve loved an opportunity to meet the “Cruel Summer” singer, also 34.
While Kelce received plenty of friendship bracelets from fans he met at the show — he jokingly admitted he was “a little butthurt” that he wasn’t able to trade any with the star herself. “I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her,” said Kelce. “I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it.”
While the Super Bowl winner couldn’t meet Swift at her show in Kansas City, he was in luck: The podcast comments caught the attention of the “All Too Well” singer, and their whirlwind romance began not long after.
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” Swift revealed about the start of their relationship in a TIME profile in December. “We started hanging out right after that.”
The two kept their relationship private at first — but rumors began to swirl of their potential pairing, which Kelce first acknowledged in a September interview on The Pat McAfee Show. While Kelce wouldn’t say whether he and Swift had met in person, he did admit that he “threw the ball in her court.”
“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 recalled to host Pat McAfee about what he told the performer.
Swift said yes to the invite — and seemingly confirmed she was dating Kelce — when she returned to Arrowhead Stadium to see Chiefs best the Chicago Bears several days later. Fans spotted the Grammy winner donning a red-and-white Chiefs jacket as she cheered for Kelce’s team in a private suite with his mother, Donna Kelce.
“I’m enjoying life and I sure as hell enjoyed this weekend,” Kelce said on his podcast following the buzzy win. “Shout out to Taylor for pulling up. That was pretty ballsy.”
After her first game, Swift became a regular attendee of Chiefs fanfare throughout the rest of the season — even flying halfway across the globe to see her boyfriend collect another Super Bowl ring in February.
Kelce, similarly, has caught many more Eras Tour performances, traveling to Australia, South America, Asia and Europe to see his girlfriend shake it off during her three-and-a-half-hour tour de force concert after his football season ended.
In June, he even found his way onto the Eras Tour stage in London, joining the ranks of Swift’s background dancers for the star’s costume change before she sang “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.”
And Swift only continued to pour on the love, writing on Instagram after that she was “still cracking up/swooning” from Kelce’s onstage moment during the London show.
