Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce sent shock waves through social media on Tuesday with a joint post announcing their engagement after a two-year courtship.
The 35-year-old pop star and 35-year-old tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs wrote: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married” with a firecracker emoji on Instagram, alongside a series of images of themselves in a lush, floral setting.
Kelce, who is seen in the photos on bended knee, proposed with a ring made by New York City-based designer Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewelry, according to People.
In the immediate aftermath of the engagement announcement, fans could type in Swift name on Google and see celebratory confetti.
The high-profile pair have been together since July 2023. They started dating while Swift was in the throes of her now world-famous Eras tour. At a Kansas City stop, Kelce attempted to give Swift his number on a friendship bracelet, a ubiquitous accessory on the tour. When that failed, he spoke openly about his affection for the singer on his podcast, New Heights.
“I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs she sings,” Kelce told his brother, Jason Kelce, on the podcast at the time.
“If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets and I had received a bunch of them, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it.”
The pair got in touch after that proclamation and began dating shortly thereafter. They in effect hard-launched their relationship in September 2023 when Swift appeared at Arrowhead Stadium to watch Kelce – and the Kansas City Chiefs – play the Chicago Bears.
Since then, they have made headlines routinely. In one blockbuster instance, fans went wild after seeing Swift and Kelce kissing on the field after his Super Bowl LVIII win in 2024 – Kelce’s third – with the Kansas City Chiefs in a victory against the San Francisco 49ers.
In front of thousands of screaming fans, Swift tweaked a song in her Eras Tour shows, – Karma, to be about Kelce: “Karma is the guy in the Chiefs, coming straight home to me.” She also featured him in a 2024 performance in London during the The Tortured Poets Department set of the show.
The pair also, very recently, appeared on New Heights together to announce Swift’s upcoming 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, which many (correctly!) suspected would be a precursor to an engagement.
That episode has since broken the record for the most concurrent views for a podcast on YouTube, Guinness World Records announced on Tuesday. About 1.3 million people simultaneously tuned in to the podcast episode when it first aired on YouTube on 13 August. By Tuesday, the podcast episode had 20m views on YouTube.
Fans of both Swift and Kelce have been waiting for an engagement announcement for virtually their entire relationship, but rumours heated up last month when photos of Kelce’s lock-screen made the rounds on social media and beyond. The screen appeared to show a photo of the duo with Swift flashing an outstretched hand.
The NFL shared well wishes to the couple in a congratulation post while Brittany Mahomes showed her support in an Instagram story, calling the pair “two of the most genuine people”.
Donald Trump, who is no stranger to weighing in on pop culture, told reporters on Tuesday that he wishes Kelce and Swift “a lot of luck”.
“He’s a great player. I think he’s a great guy. I think she’s a terrific person,” the president said of the news.
The engagement is particularly notable for longtime Swifties, who have grown up with Swift and watched her dating journey over the years. Many of her songs have been about her past paramours, which include the likes of Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy, Tom Hiddleston, Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, Jake Gyllenhaal and John Mayer.