Pop icon Taylor Swift has announced her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce. The singer shared the news on Instagram on Tuesday, posting: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”
Her announcement was accompanied by photographs of Kelce proposing, with further images showing the couple embracing and displaying her diamond engagement ring. The post attracted more than 18 million likes within four hours.
Celebrities including Avril Lavigne and Cara Delevingne offered congratulations on Instagram. Kelce’s team also responded on X, writing: “today is a fairy tale” and adding: “Congrats to Travis and Taylor – we’re excited to have you as a permanent member of the Chiefs Kingdom family!”
US President Donald Trump also commented, wishing them “a lot of luck… I think he’s a great player. A great guy. And I think she’s a terrific person.”
Their relationship began after Swift drew Kelce’s attention at her 2023 Eras Tour concert in Kansas City, Missouri.
The PA news agency reported that Swift’s engagement ring is an old mine brilliant cut, created by Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewellery.
Swift also shared a heart on her Instagram story, accompanied by her track “So High School” from the anthology version of “The Tortured Poets Department.”
The song is believed to reference Kelce. Another track from the album, “The Alchemy,” is also thought to be about him.
Swift recently concluded her record-breaking “Eras Tour” and remains one of the world’s most prominent artists. Much of her back catalogue explores past relationships, with fans often speculating on the identities of those featured in her lyrics.
The couple spoke about their relationship during an episode of Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, which he co-hosts with his brother Jason.
Explaining why she agreed to appear, Swift said: “This podcast got me a boyfriend,” joking that Kelce had used it as his “personal dating app.”
She also used the episode to announce her new album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Kelce had previously told listeners about attending one of Swift’s concerts at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs, and being disappointed he could not meet her.
Swift said he assumed his position on the team would give him access backstage. She joked: “Because he knows the elevator lady, he thought he could talk to her about just getting down to my dressing room. That’s how it works in 1973.”
Kelce also mentioned wanting to give her a beaded friendship bracelet, popular during the “Eras Tour,” with his phone number attached.
Swift admitted that the viral podcast moment felt like “he was standing outside of my apartment, holding a boom box saying, ‘I want to go on a date with you’.” Family and friends encouraged her to pursue the relationship.
“My relatives, my cousins, were like, ‘Please, please, please, he’s amazing’. There were friends that were like, ‘He’s actually an amazing guy, he’s so great’. There was a lot of people whispering in my ear about you.”
She described the experience as the moment she had “been writing songs about, wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager.”
“It was wild, but it worked… He’s the good kind of crazy,” she added, describing Kelce as “a human exclamation point.”
Since becoming a couple, Swift and Kelce have frequently been seen together, with the NFL player often attending her concerts.
At Swift’s Wembley Stadium show on 23 June, Kelce joined her on stage in a top hat and tails before she performed “The Tortured Poets Department” section. He also appeared during her performance of “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.”
Swift’s personal life has long attracted attention from fans and the media.
In her 2014 hit “Shake It Off,” she responded to criticism of her dating history, singing: “I go on too many dates. But I can’t make ’em stay. At least that’s what people say.”
Her former partners include The 1975 singer Matty Healy, widely believed to have inspired her latest album “The Tortured Poets Department,” though this has not been confirmed.
The album’s title track includes the lyrics: “At dinner, you take my ring off my middle finger / And put it on the one people put wedding rings on, and that’s the closest I’ve come to my heart exploding.”
Her track “London Boy” is believed to reference actor Joe Alwyn.
Other ex-partners include Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal and John Mayer.
