Taylor Swift PDA, Public Dating Recapped Amid Travis Kelce

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As I am sure you know, last week, Taylor Swift announced her upcoming 12th studio album on her boyfriend, Travis Kelce's, New Heights podcast.
After the two-hour interview aired, fans were left feeling pretty satisfied, having enjoyed a pretty intimate insight into Taylor and Travis's dynamic. Not only had Tay used her beau's podcast for her work venture, they also shared some cute moments on-camera, and discussed their day-to-day life together, which includes making sourdough bread and spending time with each other's families.
Many newer fans of Taylor went so far as to say that this was an uncharacteristically personal display from the star, and even speculated that how public she is being with Travis must mean that they are more serious than any of the relationships that Tay has had before.
However, longtime Swifties know that this is, in fact, nothing new from the singer, with some even crediting her ex Joe Alwyn for how their super-private relationship had managed to totally flip the narrative when it comes to Taylor's dating reputation.
For reference, Taylor started dating the British actor in September 2016, which coincided with her proactive decision to completely retreat from the spotlight as she struggled to regain public favor after her latest feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West during the summer of that same year.
And this step back from the limelight appeared to work for Taylor's love life, too, with her and Joe quietly falling in love away from the glare of the paparazzi and social media. Because of this timing, Taylor's music from this period of her life is the only real insight we have into it. And while lyrical interpretation is entirely subjective, her music suggests that she and Joe thoroughly enjoyed their low-key life away from the glitz and glamor of showbiz. The two stayed together for more than six years, which included the years lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, which only added to Taylor's privacy.
However, it is very evident that Taylor's approach to her romance with Joe is the exception, not the rule, and prior to this relationship, she was just as public with pretty much all of her boyfriends as she was with Travis last week.
After all, how open she was about her relationships during the first several years of her career ended up earning Taylor the unfair reputation of a "serial dater."And while it's her messy breakups that dominated the headlines when it comes to the likes of Joe Jonas, Jake Gyllenhaal, John Mayer, and Harry Styles, she has been unashamedly down bad for several of her partners, too.
For example, who can forget the summer of 2012, when Taylor's pursuit of Conor Kennedy, the son of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was in full swing. While they only dated for a matter of weeks, Taylor attended a Kennedy family wedding during this time, and even bought a literal house close to the Kennedy family compound.
But it was arguably in 2015 that Taylor's decision to publicize her love life reached dizzying new heights, when she started dating Calvin Harris.
At this point in time, Taylor was enjoying a career high following the release of her hugely acclaimed 2014 album, 1989, which cleaned up at the Grammys and established Taylor as one of the world's biggest popstars. She had also forged an A-list clique of famous friends, otherwise known as her 'girl squad,' which she happily gave fans glimpses into on Instagram. Before she wiped her social media page ahead of her 2017 Reputation era, the profile was full of intimate photos of her cooking, partying, and generally hanging out with everybody from Selena Gomez to Blake Lively to Karlie Kloss.And Taylor had a similarly no-holds-barred approach to her love life, with Calvin being a frequent fixture on her grid, starting with when they went Instagram official in June 2015.
The constant declarations of love continued all the way through to April 2016, when Taylor posted a photo of herself supporting Calvin's Coachella set as she swooned in the caption: 'Watching @calvinharris like 😍'
And when their 15-month relationship came to an abrupt end soon afterward, Tay wasted absolutely no time in leaping into an even more public romance — this time with actor Tom Hiddleston.
Longtimers will remember that in the summer of 2016, Taylor and Tom's relationship was so unbelievably public right from the start that many people — including the most hardcore of Swifties — genuinely thought that they were filming a music video, and the whole thing was an elaborate piece of performance art. Suffice to say, that was decidedly not the case, and Taylor and Tom were genuinely just choosing to be this garishly public.It's worth noting that at this point in her career, Taylor had been run off social media due to the aforementioned Kimye beef, so while Tom didn't appear on Taylor's Instagram page in the way that Calvin did, their every move was still documented thanks to conveniently taken paparazzi photos and leaked source quotes.They were pictured making out on a beach just two weeks after Taylor's split from Calvin, and later that same month, she flew to England to meet Tom's mom, Diana.As with Travis's mom, Donna Kelce, Taylor appeared to get along famously with Diana, and as also seen in her new relationship with Travis, source quotes about her and Tom that were attributed to Taylor's camp were regularly being shared online. By July 2016, Tom was proudly wearing an 'I [heart] T.S.' tank top as he frolicked in the sea with Taylor, and — of course — the paparazzi were on hand to capture photos of the PDA.The pair then embarked on somewhat of a world tour as they were pictured going on dates in various different countries, before splitting in September 2016 as Taylor struggled to cope with the ongoing scrutiny from the Kimye incident.That same month, she switched up tactics entirely and started dating Joe.
Over the next six years, Taylor and Joe were only pictured together a handful of times, and would attend most of their work-related events separately. On the rare occasion they both attended, they would not walk the red carpet together.
Joe also honored the relationship's privacy by refraining from discussing his famous girlfriend when asked about Taylor in interviews, and the most that we learned about it outside of Taylor's songs came in her 2020 Netflix documentary, Miss Americana.In this film, Taylor makes it incredibly clear that the privacy of their romance is incredibly sacred to her, and that it is just as much her choice to keep it out of the spotlight as it was Joe's.And soon after Miss Americana's release, COVID-19 hit and further facilitated Taylor's decision to fly under the radar, but as the lockdowns ended and Taylor started to work on her 10th studio album, Midnights, the unrest she felt at being away from the spotlight appeared to grow.
Midnights was ultimately released in October 2022, with songs like 'Bejeweled' suggesting that Taylor had started to feel resentment for the humdrum life that she and Joe had created together.
The two ended up splitting in April 2023, and just weeks later, Taylor was reported to be dating the highly divisive British singer Matty Healy. And while she didn't ever explicitly acknowledge this romance, she did actively fuel it as she seemingly returned to her pre-Joe approach to dating.
Throughout May 2023, Taylor appeared keen to flaunt her rumored new boyfriend, with Matty spotted in the VIP tent at her Eras tour just two days after they were publicly linked, where he appeared to be cozy with Taylor's family and closest friends. Soon after, Taylor even put him on her Eras tour stage, with Matty performing alongside Tay's opening act Phoebe Bridgers. And while Taylor's approach to social media has admittedly changed dramatically since the Calvin days, she did appear to revert back to the dating playbook she used with Tom as the paparazzi pictured her and Matty holding hands and going to and from her New York City apartment. They were also spotted kissing in public, and source quotes attributed to their inner circles were published online regularly.Taylor and Matty even went so far as to leave Easter eggs for fans to pick up on, with both stars mouthing the same words during their respective shows in an apparent hidden declaration of their love. In case you missed it, during Matty's May 3 concert, he mouthed 'This is about you. You know who you are. I love you,' while on stage. Taylor did the exact same thing during her May 5 show in Nashville.
But, unlike with Travis, Taylor's fans weren't on board with her Matty romance thanks to his many controversies from over the years. But as the backlash grew, Taylor only became defiant, and just days after Matty's recent comments about masturbating to Black women being 'brutalized' resurfaced, she made a point of ignoring the offense that her relationship was causing.
Seemingly doubling down on her relationship choices in a rare statement about her personal life, Taylor alluded to the romance as she told the crowd at one of her concerts: 'I've just never been this happy in my life – in all aspects of my life — ever before.'And this annoyance at her fans' lack of approval was further reiterated in her 2024 album track 'But Daddy I Love Him' — even though later on in the same album, Taylor appears to confirm that Matty ended up ghosting her in the same month they'd started dating.While Matty and Taylor's relationship was incredibly short-lived, her behavior in these few weeks offered a glimpse into how things would eventually evolve with Travis.
In fact, even Taylor and Travis's origin couldn't have been more public, with the two starting to date after Travis put out a PSA that he wanted to meet her during a July 2023 episode of his podcast.
And Taylor confirmed speculation that they were together just two months later, when she showed up to support his football game, watching from a VIP friends and family suite at Arrowhead Stadium, where she already appeared to be incredibly close with his mom.
After the game, Tay was happy to be seen riding shotgun in Travis's convertible car with the top down on the way to the afterparty, and this very public hard launch was only the beginning. Over the next few weeks, the two went on to make surprise appearances on the same episode of Saturday Night Live, and were pictured together by the paparazzi on several occasions.Travis spoke openly about his growing romance with the singer on his weekly podcast, and Taylor attended several more of his football games, with Travis's mom, dad, and brother all discussing Tay in the media.
But the publicity reached fever pitch in November 2023 — notably the same year she was in relationships with both Joe and Matty — when Taylor shouted Travis out during her concert in Buenos Aires, tweaking the lyrics to her song 'Karma' to reference Travis's NFL team.
'Karma is the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me,' she sang, which became a regular lyric change going forward. Once this show had ended, Taylor was filmed running off-stage and kissing Travis passionately in full view of her fans.
The PDAs continued throughout 2024, with Travis even joining Taylor on stage for the London performance of her song 'I Can Do It With A Broken Heart,' and into 2025, with her New Heights podcast appearance.
So, while it is true that Taylor really does seem to be very happy, fully devoted, and totally in love with Travis, it is evidently misguided to project any weight or meaning onto how public Taylor is choosing to be with it.
And fans who remember the pre-Joe era shared their frustration at how Taylor's history has been rewritten in the comment section of a viral TikTok discussing the whole situation, with one comment that has more than 15,000 likes reading: 'She's ALWAYS been willing to advance the careers of her bfs, Trav is just the first to take full advantage of it.'
''We've never seen her so happy and in love' YES WE HAVE,' another popular comment reads. One more adds: 'I remember the hiddleswift era vividly bc of how cringe it was 😭''the original my man my man my man girl,' somebody else wrote, while another joked: 'we're losing ancient texts.'One more concluded: 'She has never been nonchalant a day in her life and that is why I feel so represented by her. 🤝❤️'
As always, let me know your thoughts in the comments below!