Here's How Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce *Actually* Met

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce gave all the details about how they first met during her Aug. 13 appearance on the New Heights podcast. Back in a July 2023 episode, Kelce discussed trying (and failing) to give Swift a friendship bracelet at her Eras Tour stop in Kansas City. His comments went viral, and the rest is history. But now, Swift and Kelce are sharing the rest of the behind-the-scenes moments that led to their relationship.

On the show, Swift made a point to thank the podcast, hosted by Travis and Jason Kelce, for their relationship. “I owe a lot to this podcast. This podcast got me a boyfriend ever since Travis decided to use it as his personal dating app about two years ago,” she explained.

“He threw a man tantrum,” she added. “It was such a wild romantic gesture to be like, ‘I want to date you.’ When I looked at it, I was like, ‘This dude didn't get a meet and greet, and he's making it everyone's problem.’ That's what I thought at first.”

Kelce added, “You come to Arrowhead, I get to meet you. That's the perk of playing for the Chiefs.”

According to Swift, though Kelce wanted to meet her at the show, he did not plan ahead. “You realize he didn't even reach out to our management,” Swift said. “When this podcast came out, I was like, ‘Did he ever reach out to be in the tents or did we know he was in the building?’ He came with Pat [Mahomes] and he thought that ‘cause he knows the elevator lady he could talk to her about just getting down to my dressing room.”

But Kelce got “denied” — hence the “man tantrum.” Still, it all worked out in the end. And now that the couple is two years into their relationship, here’s the full story of how they met.

Taylor Shared Her First Impression Of Travis

After hearing Kelce describe his failed attempt to meet Swift on that 2023 podcast episode, Swift was initially worried that Kelce might be “crazy.” Still, she’s a sucker for a grand romantic gesture. “This kind of felt more like I was in an ‘80s John Hughes movie, and he was just standing outside of my window with a boombox, being like, ‘I want to date you. Do you want to go on a date with me? I made you a friendship bracelet. Do you want to date me?’”

“I was like, if this guy isn't crazy, which is a big if, this is sort of what I've been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager,” she added.

Kelce then shared his perspective on the sitch. “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,” he replied.

“It was wild but it worked. I’m glad it worked,” Swift added.

Still, Swift never received the bracelet Kelce made for her. “I’ve never seen the original,” she said. According to Kelce, he left it at the show: “It didn’t leave the stadium because I was butt hurt.”

They Detailed How Their First Conversations Went

Once they started talking, they both felt a connection. “I knew that he wasn't crazy the first couple of times that we talked,” Swift said. “I was just like, he's truly getting to know me in a way that's very natural, very pure, very normal... also just the way that he could make me laugh so immediately about normal things.”

“Travis is like ... he's just a vibe booster ... He's like a human exclamation point,” she said. “You're so non-judgmental about people and you were not judgmental about the fact that I knew nothing about the world you were in... You were so nice.”

According to Swift, she was not really a football expert when they first met. “On our first date, I legitimately asked him what it was like when the Chiefs played the Eagles in the Super Bowl, and he looked across the field across the line of scrimmage and saw his brother standing on the other [side], like 5 feet in front of him on the field.”

“He was like, ‘Actually, I'm on the offense, and my brother's on the offense, and I'm only on the field at the same time as the defense,’” Swift recalled his response. “I now know what an insane question that was,” she added.

On the podcast, Kelce also shared his first impression of Swift — he was “captivated” by her Eras Tour performance. “She blew me away. I had never experienced something so mesmerizing on stage and then so real and so beautiful in person,” Kelce said. “I get you in a room, and it’s like I’ve known you forever. It was like the easiest conversation I ever had. It was so much fun that it just knocked my socks off.”

“I give the Eras Tour credit because if I had never went to that show ... I would have never went on [the podcast] and told everybody how butt hurt I was,” he added. “I'd never just been so engulfed in the curiosity of who you were.”

They Revealed Who Set Them Up

Swift and Kelce credited Chiefs coach Andy Reid (who is close friends with Swift’s dad, Scott Swift) with setting them up. “Whatever Andy Reid says, we’re gonna stand by,” Swift said when Jason said that the coach had revealed the role he played in their romance.

But according to Swift, it wasn’t only Reid who was playing Cupid. “When you guys did the full send on the podcast and everybody heard it — it was the the shooting your shot heard around the world — basically, everyone who likes you, which is a lot of people, started reaching out to everyone who knows me.”

“Andy was vouching for you. My relatives, my cousins were like, ‘Please, please, please. He's amazing.’ There were there were friends that were like, ‘He's actually an amazing guy. He's so great.’ There was a lot of kind of people whispering in my ear about you,” she said, adding that it’s “not normal” for so many people to vouch for another person. “There are people just willing to go to bat for you and be like, ‘You don't understand. This guy's incredible.’”

At the end, though, they did give Reid his due. “Thank you, Andy,” Swift said. “And Scott, thank you,” Kelce added a nod to Swift’s father.