Taylor Swift’s relationship status has been a matter of national interest ever since her teens, and for the last few years she’s been ensconced in what seems to be a sweet and stable relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Now, after much speculation, the pair have announced their engagement—with an eight-carat diamond ring to boot.
Here, find a timeline of Swift and Kelce’s relationship, from their first public forays together in 2023 to the sweet sound of wedding bells:
July 2023: Kelce’s crush on Swift is officially activated
For all we know, Kelce has been crushing on Swift ever since the two were teenagers and he was watching her music videos on YouTube, but things got real when he attended the singer’s Eras Tour show at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium two years ago. A few weeks later, Kelce got charmingly vulnerable when, on an episode of their podcast, he admitted to his brother that he had tried to meet Swift after the show and it hadn’t worked out. Hey—you gotta stay in the game to win it, friends!
September 2023: Swift attends her first Chiefs game
Was there anything cuter than the sight of Swift’s massive grin as she took in her very first Chiefs game featuring Kelce? And next to Kelce’s mother Donna, no less? Absolutely not.
October 2023: Swift brings the girlies to see Kelce play
Once your friends are showing up to see your boyfriend play, it’s officially so real (for an NFL GF, anyway). That’s what happened in October of 2023 when Swift brought some of her tailgate squad—which has included Blake Lively, Sabrina Carpenter, and Sophie Turner—to watch the Chiefs play the New York Jets in New Jersey.
November 2023: Kelce hits the Eras tour with Swift’s dad
Once Swift became football-watching buddies with Kelce’s mom, it was only a matter of time before Kelce and Swift’s father Scott had a boys’ night out in the VIP section at the Eras Tour. A truly heartwarming way for two men to spend time together, IMO!
December 2024: Swift speaks publicly about dating Kelce for the first time
Swift admitted in her Time Person of the Year cover interview that her relationship with Kelce started when he “very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell.” She went on: “We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other.” And, no, for the record, their first date wasn’t at a Chiefs game. “By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date,” Swift said.
January 2024: Swift and Kelce engage in some post-game PDA
Swift and Kelce adorably locked lips after the Chiefs beat the Baltimore Ravens during the AFC Championship Game, thus securing their spot at Super Bowl LVIII. Then, in February, Swift hopped on a plane from Tokyo to Vegas for the Big Game—and scored yet another spotlit kiss when the Chiefs bested the Patriots 25-22.
April 2024: Swift and Kelce enjoy a couples’ Coachella
It’s always fun to see the celebrity pair of the moment flex their couples style, and that’s exactly what Swift and Kelce did at Coachella last year, with Swift repping Halara, Stella McCartney, and Gucci and Kelce taking the opportunity to advertise his love for the movie Happy Gilmore via baseball cap. Big golden retriever energy (and huge supportive-girlfriend vibe coming off of Swift, whose own chapeau bore the name of Kelce and his brother Jason’s podcast New Heights.)
June 2024: Swift hard-launches Kelce on her Instagram
Swift is known for not revealing much about her relationships (or anything else, for that matter) on her social media , but on June 22 of last year, she took to Instagram to post a snapshot of herself, Kelce, Prince William, and his two elder children during her Eras Tour stop in London. (The occasion? Williams’s 42nd birthday.)
September 2024: Swift shouts Kelce out onstage
A few days after she and Kelce sang and canoodled their way through the men’s final at the 2024 US Open, Swift took a moment to praise her lover at the MTV VMAs. While accepting the prize for Video of the Year for “Fortnight,” Swift described Kelce’s very golden retriever-y energy on set: “I would always just hear someone cheering from across the studio where we were shooting…And that one person was my boyfriend Travis. Everything this man touches turns into happiness and fun and magic.”
February 2025: Swift tips her hat to Kelce with a custom thigh pendant at the Grammys
Is it even real until you’ve worn your boyfriend’s initial (or your own, of course, but come on—it’s much sexier to nod to your man) on your thigh to the 2025 Grammy Awards? And if the “T” pendant weren’t enough, Swift wore a blazing shade of Chiefs red for the occasion, making it clear that her penchant for Easter eggs doesn’t stop with her discography.
February 2025: Swift and Kelce become two-time Super Bowl sweeties
For the second year in a row, Swift showed up at the Super Bowl to watch her guy play—this time, in the esteemed company Ice Spice and the Haim sisters.
June 2025: The Swift/Kelce marriage rumors begin
Were Swift and Kelce engaged—much less married—yet? No. Did that stop the rumor mill from working overtime about a beautifully calligraphed wedding place card from one of Kelce’s football friends that referred to the couple as “Travis and Taylor Kelce”? Absolutely not.
August 2025: Swift appears on Kelce s podcast
Kelce and his brother Jason’s podcast, New Heights, got a dose of Swiftie magic when Swift herself appeared for a guest spot on August 13—using the opportunity to both discuss her and her beau’s origin story and to announce that her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, would be coming out in October.
August 2025: Travis officially puts a ring on it
Apparently, those wedding rumors weren’t quite so unfounded, as on August 26, Swift posted a joyful photo of herself and Kelce embracing in a garden (with an engagement ring fully visible, naturally) and captioned it: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married 🧨.” Mazel tovs all around!
