As with most subjects in the Swiftie canon, there’s an element of mystery surrounding the relationship between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Specifically, we never really found out how their relationship actually began.
From the perspective of the public, the origin story of Taylor + Travis goes: NFL player wanted to meet the world’s biggest pop star, so he rocked up to her concert, tried and failed to get backstage, and then went on his podcast to plead his case.
So far, all true.
Flash forward to 2025, and Swift has shed some light on the incident from her perspective, adding more layers to the lovers’ fateful first meeting. Appearing on her boyfriend’s podcast, New Heights, to promote her new album, Taylor admitted that she “owes” the program “a lot”. “This podcast has done a lot for me,” she began. “This podcast got me a boyfriend, since Travis decided to use it as his personal dating app about two years ago.”
But what happened after Travis shouted out Taylor on his podcast?
With Taylor choosing to drop news of her 12th studio album, The Life Of A Showgirl, on Kelce’s podcast, we finally have more insight into how Taylor and Travis’ relationship came to be.
How Did Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce Meet?
While we already knew Travis’ shortened version of how he tried and failed to first meet Taylor Swift, the pop superstar shed some further light on the series of events that led to their relationship.
“It was such a wild romantic gesture to just be like, ‘I WANT TO DATE YOU’,” Swift joked in regard to Travis’ on-air revelation that he’d tried to get backstage at her concert. “This dude didn’t get a meet and greet, and he’s making it everyone’s problem. That’s what I thought at first.”
She continued: “You realise he didn’t even reach out to our management. When this podcast came out, I was like, ‘Did he ever reach out to be in the [VIP] tents, or did we know he was in the building?’ He came with Pat [Mahomes, Travis’ teammate], and he thought that because he knows the elevator lady, he could talk to her about just getting down into my dressing room.”
Swift went on to detail the experience through her eyes, saying that, due to her not being “an online person”, it felt like she was in a movie.
“This felt like I was in an ’80s, John Hughes movie, and he was just standing outside my window with a boombox, being like, ‘I want to date you!'”
“This is sort of what I’ve been writing songs about what I’ve wanted to happen to me since I was a teenager,” Taylor said, to which Kelce quipped, “And I was sitting there at the Eras Tour listening to every single one of those songs, like, ‘I know what she wants me to do’.”
Even still, it seems Swift needed a little convincing before she reached out to Travis in return. She’d heard through friends that Kelce had mentioned her on his podcast, and was trying (desperately) to get her number.
Well, to start, it turns out Travis has good word of mouth.
“My cousins were like, ‘Please please please, he’s amazing,'” Taylor recounted. “There was a lot of people whispering in my ear about you and that’s not normal. There are people just willing to go to bat for you.”
Meanwhile, Travis’ coach at the Kansas City Chiefs, Andy Reid, claims he introduced them. “Whatever Andy Reid says, we’re gonna stand by,” Taylor joked. “That’s what happened.”
Reid was a longtime friend of Taylor’s dad, Scott Swift, and although she didn’t really know he was a “legend” in the sports world, she said she “always had a really positive vibe” from him.
It turns out, Andy Reid “vouched” for Travis, and Taylor took his word. So, in the words of Jason Kelce, “How did you know he wasn’t crazy?”
“I knew he wasn’t crazy the first couple of times that we talked. I was just like, he’s truly getting to know me in a way that’s very natural, very pure, very normal. Also, the way he could make me laugh so immediately. Travis is just a vibe booster in everyone’s life that he’s in. He’s like a human exclamation point. “
Naw. And as they say, the rest was history.
Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce’s First Date
Unfortunately, we still don’t have an exact timeline for when the date occurred, but we do have some adorable details about how the fortuitous first date unfolded.
To start, Taylor fumbled a question about the NFL, showing her new beau that she was definitely not a sports fan. But, as Taylor went on to explain, Travis didn’t mock her for asking the question she now admits was “insane”, instead patiently explaining the realities of the game.
“I’m forever thankful for you diving into the football world,” Kelce said.
Watch Taylor’s entire New Heights podcast episode below.
