Taylor Swift’s mom, Andrea Swift, played a key role in her whirlwind romance with Travis Kelce.
Andrea detailed how she encouraged Taylor, 36, to give Travis, also 36, a chance in episode 4 of Disney+’s Taylor Swift: The End of an Era docuseries, which dropped on Friday, December 19.
In a backstage conversation on The Eras Tour, Andrea, 67, recalled “perusing around what’s on the internet” and “I see that this guy came to your show, and he brought a friendship bracelet and wants to meet you,” she said, referring to Kelce infamously detailing how he attended a Kansas City performance in July 2023. (At the time, he revealed on his “New Heights” podcast that he hoped to give the “Fortnight” singer a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it.)
“And so, of course, I call up my resident expert on [the] Kansas City Chiefs, my cousin Robin, and I go, ‘Tell me about this guy named Travis Kelce,’” Andrea told her daughter. “And she goes, ‘Oh, my God, he’s the nicest guy. And you know what? He really loves his mom.’ And I went, ‘Ding ding ding ding.’ Then I said, ‘Now, how in the world am I gonna get her to meet him or whatever?’”
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Taylor remembered that she wasn’t into dating athletes at the time, but her mom persevered in persuading her to give the Kansas City Chiefs tight end a shot.
“I’ve been very non-athlete because I’m not one, and I’ve always just been like, ‘Well, what would we talk about?’” Taylor said. “And so you call me up with this tone of like, ‘Hey, so I know you’re gonna not react well to this, but there’s a guy.’”
“He’s really cute!” Andrea recalled telling her daughter over the phone.
Taylor went on, “You said something to the effect of like, ‘You gotta start doing something different.’”
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“Listen, it was so earnest. I thought it was the sweetest thing in the world that he came to your show. He brought you something from your world. To me, that really said a lot,” Andrea gushed over Kelce’s friendship bracelet gesture. “I thought that was really sweet and I liked it.”
After a missed connection at Taylor’s concert, the singer and football star did eventually go on a date. (They first went public with their romance in September 2023.)
“On our first date, he literally had to explain football as if it were, like, violent chess,” the “Fate of Ophelia” singer said. “Which helps me kind of understand it. Like high-speed, angry chess. And then I just sort of became obsessed with him and therefore became obsessed with learning about football. Greatest surprise of my life. Now I, like, know who’s on the injured reserve.”
Andrea’s matchmaking efforts certainly turned out well for her daughter, as Taylor and Kelce announced their engagement in August after two years of dating.
“He really crushed it in surprising me. While we were talking on his podcast, he had a complete garden built out the back of his house to propose in,” Taylor said of Kelce’s proposal during an October appearance on The Graham Norton Show. “He went all out — 10 out of 10.”
The first four episodes of Taylor Swift: The End of an Era are streaming now on Disney+. Episodes 5 and 6 premiere Tuesday, December 23.
