Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are engaged.
More than 16 million people have liked the Instagram post announcing global mega-star Taylor Swift’s engagement to football player Travis Kelce.
A senior lecturer who teaches a course at AUT on the popstar says this is just proof of Swift’s giant impact on the industry.
The Grammy-winning pop icon and the Kansas City Chiefs tight end announced the news on Instagram.
“Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” they captioned the joint Instagram post.
The photos featured a slideshow of moments from the proposal, along with a shot of the large diamond ring set in yellow gold.
The post had been liked more than 16 million times just three hours after the news was shared.
AUT senior lecturer in Critical Media Studies, Dr Rebecca Trelease, told Herald NOW’s Ryan Bridge this was a snapshot of the massive impact Swift has had in the media climate.
“That’s really impressive in terms of impact.
“Because if it’s a like, that’s not even just the people who have seen the post, that’s people who are really happy about the post, obviously. So that’s really impactful in terms of media coverage, especially in today’s age.”
She said fans will be overjoyed for Swift after her 19-year history of sharing her personal dating journey as a young teen all the way to her mid-thirties.
“So much of Taylor Swift, and the reason why people enjoy her music so much, is because she really invests herself in her songwriting.
”She is sharing every element of her life, and a lot of that, she was a young teen when she started. So a lot of that has been what makes an impact on her life, which has been love and relationships.
“And so we’re all just super happy that in this day and age, where there’s a lot going on in the world, there is a lot of bad news in the world, but yet someone has found love, someone has found happiness.”
Since formally starting dating in the autumn of 2023, Swift and Kelce appear to have gone a long way, with marriage imminent.
Their relationship began in July 2023 when Kelce went to an Eras tour show at the Chiefs’ home arena, Arrowhead Stadium.
The two eventually communicated after the NFL player was able to deliver a friendship bracelet bearing his phone number to Swift’s camp.
Weeks before their engagement, the couple recorded their first appearance together on Kelce’s New Heights podcast, which he co-hosts with his brother, former Philadelphia Eagles player Jason Kelce. The show also featured Travis Kelce’s 2023 attempt at a romantic relationship with the Grammy winner.
The couple spent more than two hours discussing their dating experiences and Swift’s account of how they met.
Swift claimed on the show that Kelce’s public declaration that he wanted to date her was a “wild, romantic gesture”. She said that the only reason she consented to go on New Heights for the first time as a podcast was because Kelce made it “his personal dating app”, which “got me a boyfriend”.
Swift claimed that they came to know one another quite naturally and that he frequently made her laugh, despite the fact that their first profession of love was a little ridiculous.
Swift also announced her upcoming album, The Life of a Showgirl, on the podcast, which will be released on October 3.
Swift last week released collectable vinyl box sets of The Life of a Showgirl after similar countdowns. Each sold out within minutes, as fans rushed to secure limited-run versions of the album.
In December 2024, Swift concluded her Eras tour and celebrated her musical marathon with a private wrap party, with Kelce in attendance.
The 35-year-old songwriting sensation shattered records with her nearly two-year-long Eras tour that ended last year.
It raked in $2 billion over 149 shows around the world, making it the most lucrative tour in music history.
Tickets for the tour sometimes sold for exorbitant prices, and it drew millions of fans.