Mother knows best! As Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce‘s love story has unfolded over the past couple of years, fans have pored over every detail, from the athlete’s initial Eras Tour friendship bracelet fail to the singer saying “yes” to his proposal in August.
But one thing that’s evaded fans has been the person in Swift’s life who supposedly convinced her to give Travis a chance — until now. In the new The End of an Era docuseries episodes that dropped Friday (Dec. 19), the pop star reveals that her mom, Andrea Swift, was the one who’d encouraged the match after seeing the football player recount on his New Heights podcast with brother Jason in 2023 his unsuccessful attempt to slip his now-fiancée his phone number at a Kansas City Eras concert.
“I’m looking at the headlines and perusing around on the Internet, and I see that this guy came to your show, and he brought a friendship bracelet, and wants to meet you,” Andrea says in episode four after her superstar daughter asked her to “tell the story” of how Travis came into their lives.
“So I call up my resident expert on the Kansas City Chiefs, my cousin Robin, and I go, ‘Tell me about this guy named Travis Kelce,’” Andrea continues. “She goes, ‘Oh my God, he is the nicest guy! And he really loves his mom.’ And I went, ‘Ding, ding, ding, ding!’”
When the 14-time Grammy winner’s mother then called to suggest that Taylor give Travis a shot, the superstar says she was hesitant. “I’d been very non-athlete, because I’m not one, and I’ve always been like, ‘What would we talk about?” Swift says in the Eras episode, laughing. “You said something to the effect of, like, ‘You gotta start doing something different.’”
Taylor eventually did reach out to Travis, and the rest was history. The Grotesquerie star had previously revealed that someone in his future wife’s camp had been in his corner.
“There were definitely people she knew that knew who I was … I had somebody playing Cupid,” he told The Wall Street Journal in November 2023. “[Taylor] told me exactly what was going on and how I got lucky enough to get her to reach out.”
The first four episodes of The End of an Era are now streaming on Disney+.
