After Travis Kelce made a grand romantic gesture for Taylor Swift, the singer’s mother helped encourage her daughter to give the football player a chance.
In Episode 4 of Swift’s “The End of an Era“ docuseries on Disney+, Andrea Swift recalled how she’s always been Team Travis.
“I’m looking at the headlines and perusing around what’s on the internet,” she said as she recounted the story backstage to Swift, alongside her brother Austin and publicist Tree Paine. “I see that this guy came to your show, and he brought a friendship bracelet and wants to meet you.”
In 2023, Kelce attended one of Taylor Swift’s concerts and attempted to give the singer a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it. Alas, he learned that she wasn’t meeting with anyone before or after the show in an effort to conserve her voice for the concert, which lasted over three hours.
Kelce had shared about his efforts on his “New Heights” podcast and admitted that he was “a little butt hurt” that he didn’t get to meet Taylor Swift.
After Andrea Swift heard about Kelce’s attempt to meet her daughter, she started investigating her would-be suitor.
“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,’” she recalled. “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 going to get her to meet him?’”
Taylor Swift then explained that she was never interested in dating athletes.
“I’ve been very non-athlete because I’m not one, and I’ve always just been like, ‘Well, what would we talk about?’” she said to her mom. “And so you call me up with this tone of like, ‘Hey, so I know you’re going to not react well to this, but there’s a guy …’”
“He’s really cute!” Andrea Swift added.
“You said something to the effect of like, ‘You gotta start doing something different,’” Taylor Swift recalled.
Andrea Swift then explained why she was so impressed with Kelce’s romantic gesture.
“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,” she said.
Taylor Swift did decide to give Kelce a try and after nearly two years of dating they announced their engagement in August 2025.
“On our first date, he literally had to explain football as if it were, like, violent chess,” she recalled. “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.”
In the end, the pop star’s mother also approves of her relationship.
“He really is one of the happiest people I think I’ve ever met, which I adore. He just brought a lot of happiness, which is I think what he does in a lot of his circles. He brings a lot of happiness to the world,” she said in the doc.
While reflecting on her romantic life before Kelce, Swift said she always struggled to balance her relationships with her career. However, the dynamic changed when she met Kelce.
“I don’t think I thought I’d ever meet a guy who had that same (career) trajectory. And I realized that with this person in my life that just was the right fit for me. You can have the two passions coexist and they actually fuel each other,” she said.
