Taylor Swift‘s Disney+ docuseries has already unpacked the scale and pressure of the Eras Tour, but episode four takes a noticeably softer turn.
In “Thank You for the Lovely Bouquet,” Swift and her mother Andrea Swift trace the origins of a relationship that would later unfold on the world’s biggest stages, beginning not with a grand gesture, but with a headline and a phone call.
The episode, released Friday, revisits the moment Travis Kelce first entered Andrea Swift‘s awareness. Andrea recalled casually scanning the internet when something caught her eye.
“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,” she said.
Rather than dismissing it as celebrity noise, Andrea decided to dig a little deeper. She turned to someone she trusted for perspective, her cousin Robin, whom she described as her personal source for all things Kansas City Chiefs.
“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 said.
“She goes, ‘Oh my God, he is the nicest guy! And he really loves his mom.’ And I went, ‘Ding, ding, ding, ding.’ And then I said, ‘Now, how in the world am I going to get her to meet him?’ “
A nudge toward something different
Taylor admitted that her mother’s enthusiasm did not instantly translate into excitement on her end. At the time, she described herself as “very non-athlete” and unsure what she would even talk about with a professional football player.
“So you call me with this tone of, ‘Hey, I know you’re not gonna react well to this, but there’s a guy…’ ” Taylor said, recalling the conversation.
“He’s really cute!” Andrea jumped in.
Taylor laughed as she remembered her mother’s broader message.
“You said something to the effect of, ‘You gotta start doing something different,’ ” she said.
What helped shift Taylor‘s perspective was the sincerity behind Kelce‘s original attempt to meet her. Andrea described the friendship bracelet as “so earnest” and “the sweetest thing,” noting that it came from Taylor‘s world rather than his own.
“To me that really said a lot. So I thought that was really sweet and I liked it,” Andrea said.
When Taylor and Kelce did finally spend time together, the gap between their worlds became part of the charm. Swift said Kelce had to walk her through the basics of football on their first date, a process she described in her own words.
“He had to explain football to me,” Taylor said, calling it “violent chess.”
“Then I became obsessed with him and therefore became obsessed with learning about football, greatest surprise of my life.”
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