Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift. Getty Images(3)
Travis Kelce’s and Taylor Swift’s romance has come a long way since the NFL star put his phone number on a friendship bracelet.
When Kelce, 34, was asked to name the “most famous person” in his contacts in a Monday, January 8, TikTok for the Kansas City Chiefs, the tight end didn’t try to downplay Swift’s celebrity status. “You already know the easy [answer],” he said, seemingly referring to the 34-year-old Grammy winner.
After he was told not to give the “easy answer,” Kelce named Justin Timberlake as the biggest A-lister in his phone before admitting that the former boybander probably wouldn’t pick up if he rang. “No, not a chance,” Kelce quipped. “And I appreciate you Justin, but he’s a busy man.”
Following the light-hearted exchange, fans quickly took to the comments section to share their thoughts on Kelce choosing Timberlake, 42, over Swift. Some wanted the athlete to answer the question again — “REDO THIS WITH THE EASY ANSWER,” one person wrote — while others were curious exactly how Swift would pop up her boyfriend’s contact list.
“The real question is HOW is the easy answer saved in his contacts?!” another fan asked.
Since first being linked last year, both Kelce and Swift have often been generous in their praise for one another. While speaking to WSJ. Magazine in November 2023, Kelce said it’s often “mind-blowing” to be around someone as talented as Swift, adding that he’s “learning” from her “every day.”
He also gushed over Swift’s ability to take living her life so publicly in stride. “Obviously I’ve never dated anyone with that kind of aura about them … I’ve never dealt with it,” he told the outlet. “But at the same time, I’m not running away from any of it. … The scrutiny she gets, how much she has a magnifying glass on her, every single day, paparazzi outside her house, outside every restaurant she goes to, after every flight she gets off, and she’s just living, enjoying life. When she acts like that, I better not be the one acting all strange.”
Later that month, Kelce touched down in Argentina to attend one of Swift’s Eras Tour concerts. “I was blown away,” Kelce said of Swift’s performance during an episode of his “New Heights” podcast later that month. “Taylor absolutely ripped it. She killed it. It looked like she was having some fun up there.”
Swift, meanwhile, has shown her support for Kelce in spades. The singer has cheered her boyfriend on at multiple Chiefs games — both home and away — during their 2023-2024 season, causing some fans to push back on the NFL’s heavy coverage of her attendance. Swift, however, isn’t concerned with anything but showing up for Kelce.
“I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once,” Swift said during her December 2023 TIME cover story. “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.”
She continued, “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. The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”
While the couple’s romance is certainly in the spotlight, Kelce understands why people are such fans of Swift — and is taking it all one day at a time.
“We’re learning with the paparazzi just taking photos from all over the place, it comes with it,” he said during an October 2023 press conference. “You’ve got a lot of people that care about Taylor, and for good reason.”
The NFL star added that it’s really all about “living, learning and enjoying the moments” together. “At the end of the day, I have always been good at compartmentalizing and being able to stay focused,” he said. “I will just keep rolling with that.”
