During a lengthy, in-depth interview with TIME for the publication's 2023 Person of the Year cover story, Taylor Swift spoke candidly about her romantic relationship with NFL star Travis Kelce, which has been the talk of the pop music and pro football worlds since the couple went public in September.
"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."
Swift revealed a brief relationship timeline which precedes Swift's Sept. 24 attendance of the Kansas City Chief's home victory over the Chicago Bears.
"This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell," she said. "We started hanging out right after that."
While speculation about their romance was flooding social media, nothing about when they actually started seeing each other had been confirmed—until now.
"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 explained. "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."
Can you imagine the headlines if they did? 'Swift and Kelce Tackle Love at First Down!' Iconic, if you ask us.
Swift is the first entertainer of any sort selected as Time's Person of the Year—a tradition that dates back to 1927.
"The person chosen has typically been a ruler over traditional domains of power...very often a politician or a titan of industry...And yet the person whose singular influence was revealed throughout 2023 has held none of these roles—or anything remotely similar," Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs wrote. "Taylor Swift found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light...Swift is the rare person who is both the writer and hero of her own story."
Writer and hero, indeed!
