All The Pressures In Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce’s Relationship

Taylor Swift’s album “The Tortured Poets Department” included the song “So Long, London” as its devastating fifth track. It’s rumored to be about Swift’s split from her longtime British boyfriend Joe Alwyn — but thankfully, the heartbreak described in that song didn’t last forever. In 2023, Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce began a relationship. It’s nearly impossible to have any privacy when you’re as well-known as those two, but they were able to start their relationship earlier than anyone knew. Good for them!

The couple has the world enamored, and most people feel positively about Swift and Kelce. Even Swift’s childhood bestie Abigail Anderson is on board with #Tayvis. However, it hasn’t been an easy road. Any relationship comes with its own struggles, but the pressures are exceedingly high when you’re famous (and when everyone has an opinion). What pressures are weighing on the football star and the Grammy-winning songstress?

Swift’s immense fame is what contributed to a previous breakup

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One thing Travis Kelce is better at than Taylor Swift’s ex Joe Alwyn is public displays of affection. It’s been reported by an anonymous source for Us Weekly that Alwyn and Swift broke up because of how famous she was. Although Kelce doesn’t seem to mind the spotlight, Swift is reportedly anxious that the constant attention that comes with being her boyfriend will overwhelm him.

“There’s very little oxygen between her life and fame,” a source told Page Six. “Travis is a peacock, but he has never dated a celeb before, and she is one of the most famous women in the world. Right now he is enjoying everything and she is hoping that it stays like that.” They said that Swift has her fingers crossed that “he doesn’t get freaked out about the fame. That the constant-ness of it doesn’t get exhausting for him.”

The scary downside of Kelce and Swift’s romance is that his privacy has been invaded in certain ways. Swift’s nerves about Kelce getting tired of all the hullabaloo are reminiscent of her song “Peace” from her “Folklore” album. In it, she mournfully sings, “Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?”

After being accused of dating too much, Swift could feel pressure for this to work out

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As a singer-songwriter, Taylor Swift writes a lot about her life and her relationships. Unfortunately, the many love songs in her discography have inspired a cruel running gag — that Swift dates too much but can’t keep a man. Speaking to Vogue in 2016, Swift said, “You know, I went out on a normal amount of dates in my early 20s, and I got absolutely slaughtered for it. And it took a lot of hard work and altering my decision-making. I didn’t date for two and a half years. Should I have had to do that? No” (via Time).

The history of slut-shaming that Swift has faced could be adding pressure to her current relationship with Travis Kelce. If this relationship doesn’t work out, will the media fall back on their misogynistic tendencies and lambast her for it?

In addition to societal pressure, Swift may be feeling personal pressure to hold tightly onto Travis. Relationship expert Megan Weks spoke with the Daily Mail in September 2023 after Swift and Travis’ mother Donna Kelce were seen sitting together at one of his football games. Weks speculated that Swift meeting the families of her beaus soon after starting a relationship might indicate “an anxious attachment style” and added, “People with anxious attachment styles cling to others because they are afraid of being abandoned.”