Beyond ‘Showgirl’: Taylor Swift’s Biggest Revelations on Falling for Travis Kelce & More on ‘New Heights’

For years now, fans have known the tale of how Travis wooed Taylor — professing his crush on her on New Heights after failing to give her a friendship bracelet with his number on it at a Kansas City Eras Tour show — but on the podcast, Swift finally shared her side of the story.

“You realize he didn’t even reach out to our management,” Swift said, laughing at Travis’ prior claim that he was “butthurt” about not getting to meet her that night after the show, which she lovingly referred to as a “man tantrum.” “When this podcast came out, I was like, ‘Did he ever reach out to be, like, in the tents, or did we know he was in the building?’ He came with [Patrick Mahomes], and he thought that because he knows the elevator lady that he could talk to her about just getting down to my dressing room.”

That said, Swift thought his confession on the podcast was super romantic. “It felt more like I was in an ’80s John Hughes movie, and he was standing outside of my window with a boombox saying, ‘I want to date you! Do you want to go on a date with me? I made you a friendship bracelet! Do you want to date me?’”

She added: “I was like, ‘If this guy’s not crazy, this is sort of what I’ve been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager.’”

One of the cutest revelations came when Swift opened up about one of the first conversations she had with Travis. “On our first date, I legitimately asked him what it was like when the Chiefs played the Eagles in the Super Bowl, and he looked across the field across the line of scrimmage and saw his brother standing … five feet in front of him on the field.”

“Like, I now know what an insane question that was,” she continued, gushing that Travis was so “non-judgmental” about her not knowing the basic rules of football. “He was like, ‘Actually, I’m on the offense, and my brother’s on the offense, and I’m only on the field at the same time as the defense.’ I thought everyone was on the field at the same time.”

Later on, Travis also shared his own first impressions of the pop star. “To see you on the stage, and to see how crazy you can get an entire stadium going, then I get you in a room and it’s like I’ve known you forever,” he said, making Swift swoon. “It was the easiest conversation I’ve ever had … it knocked my socks off. She blew me away, and I’d never experienced something so mesmerizing on stage and then so real and so beautiful in person.”

Though she may not have known much about football before, Swift says she totally “fell in love” with the game soon after she started dating Travis.

“I became a person who was running through the halls of my house screaming, ‘We drafted Xavier Worthy!’” the musician said. “My friends are like, ‘Who body-snatched you? What do you mean?’”

“Tay’s not f–king around,” Travis said of his superstar girlfriend’s newfound interest, adding that he loved how curious she was about the sport when they first started their relationship.

One of the most emotional parts of the podcast was when Swift recalled how she found out she’d reclaimed ownership of her master recordings, a deal that she revealed was brokered with previous owner Shamrock Holdings by her mom, Andrea, and brother, Austin. When Andrea called with the good news, Taylor said she “literally hit the floor” and was “bawling my eyes out, just weeping.”

After tearfully sharing the news with Travis, who said she collapsed like “dead weight” in his arms, Taylor shared that one of the first people she called was Phoebe Bridgers. “Yeah, this changed my life,” she added on New Heights. “I can’t believe it, still.”

While Swift says she misses seeing her fans on the Eras Tour, she’s relieved not to be touring anymore after pushing her body to the limit for two years straight on the road. “It feels great,” she said on the podcast of now having time off, noting that she was in a “perpetual state of physical discomfort” during the run.

“I learned so much about how far I can push myself,” she continued, adding that she learned to perform through the discomfort of having the stomach flu, blisters and aching feet “usually all at the same time.”

Swift says she’s also been able to lean back into her hobbies, from sewing to baking — currently, she’s deep into an “obsession” with finding the perfect sourdough recipe.

Also on New Heights, Swift shared an update on her dad, Scott, following his quintuple bypass to treat five blockages in his heart earlier this year. When the news first came out about his procedure in July, a rep for the singer told Billboard that the stockbroker was doing “fantastic.”

“He came out of surgery, tried to give guitar picks to all the nurses and doctors, but he wasn’t wearing pants, didn’t have pockets, hospital gown, you know?” Taylor said, revealing that she and her brother and mom took turns staying with Scott in the hospital. “It was kind of wild, because it was like, very parent-child reversal in a lot of ways. I’m like, this dude built play sets and swing sets and cribs for me. I’m building his shower chair and his walker.”

During the episode, both the pop star and Travis addressed how they’ve dealt with the whirlwind of public interest in their relationship — including any hate they might receive. “I’ve been in the music industry for 20 years — it’s kind of hard to hurt my feelings at this point,” Swift said, shrugging.

“She’s a pro,” Travis agreed, noting that he learned from his girlfriend how to deal with fame. “There’s still some wacko theories from the beginning that I was like, ‘Oh no, how is she handling this?’ Her being so calm, cool and collected … really made me grow up real fast.”

Swift said that she’s also learned from her partner how to navigate hate. “The fact that you genuinely find a lot of online discourse to be truly hilarious, that’s changed things for me,” she said to Travis. “That’s completely bled into the way that I metabolize these things. … Think of your energy as if it’s expensive, like it’s a luxury item. Not everyone can afford it.”