Taylor Swift Details Origins of Travis Kelce Relationship in 'Time' Person of the Year Profile

The musician and Chiefs tight end have had a year to remember.

The year 2023 brought fans of sports and music the most zeitgeist-y celebrity relationship of the decade and one of the most inescapable of the century.

Since appearing at the Chiefs‘ 41–10 win over the Bears on Sept. 24, musician Taylor Swift has rarely been far away from Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce for too long and vice versa. Their relationship has multiplied the spotlight on them and everyone in their orbit in a way rarely seen in our atomized culture.

Due to the nature of his job, Kelce had done most of the talking about his relationship with Swift... until Wednesday morning.

Swift, named Person of the Year by Time in a first for artistic achievement, opened up about how her relationship with Kelce began.

Taylor Swift says she and Travis Kelce were already a couple when she appeared at a Chiefs game on Sept. 24 :: Mark Hoffman, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” she says. “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."

Swift humorously denied that her attending the Chiefs' game against Chicago was their first date.

"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.

Since the relationship began, Swift and Kelce have been seen everywhere from Saturday Night Live to any number of New York restaurants—something Swift implied is by design.

“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” Swift said. “The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”