By Kurt Hall and Nathan Layne
NEW YORK, July 3 (Reuters) - Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are widely expected to cap their three-year love story with a New York wedding celebration on Friday, ending months of speculation about the union between the pop megastar and one of the greatest tight ends in NFL history.
While neither has confirmed plans publicly, the New York Post's Page Six reported Thursday, citing unnamed sources, that the two had already wed. Reuters was unable to confirm that report.
But
a heavy media presence and barricades around New York's Madison Square Garden fueled expectations of a major event, as passersby on Friday morning stopped to snap photos and videos on their phones.
Workers spent days this week unloading food and scenery into the iconic Manhattan arena, which is in its longest summer stretch without a scheduled concert or sporting event. Scaffolding with heavy black curtains was in place, preventing crowds from spotting people arriving at the building, and a sign posted by an entrance on Thursday warned anyone entering to maintain strict confidentiality.
Officials including New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani have dropped hints that something is coming, and U.S. media have reported the pair plan a cocktail hour for 1,000 people at the start of a long holiday weekend when the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence from British rule. The couple through a publicist on Thursday said they had donated $26 million to several charities in the city and elsewhere this week.
The buzzy event coincides with brutally hot weather. Temperatures were forecast to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) and will likely test the stamina of onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrity couple or their famous guests.
'ROYAL WEDDING'
Alison Walsh stopped with her 11-year-old daughter — one of the singer's fans — on the West 31st Street side of the arena to peer through police-lined barricades at a large white tent.
"When we heard this was going down, we wanted to be here. It is the closest thing to a royal wedding in the U.S.," said the 46-year-old Walsh, who was visiting from Connecticut and is also a Swift fan.
The couple's love story began in 2023 when Kelce tried unsuccessfully to meet Swift backstage at one of her concerts, but succeeded in capturing her attention and warming her heart by recounting his disappointment on a podcast.
As the relationship grew, they appeared publicly together at her concerts, his Kansas City Chiefs games and on "Saturday Night Live," leading to an August 2025 engagement announcement on Instagram that read "Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married."
Many of Swift's chart-topping songs have explored her relationship problems and desire for love, and the engagement set off intense speculation among her hundreds of millions of fans, nicknamed "Swifties," about wedding details, which the couple -- both 36 years old -- guarded carefully.
One of the most successful musicians of all time, the writer of "Love Story" and "Shake It Off" has won 14 Grammy Awards and shattered records with a global concert tour that made her a billionaire.
Kelce, one of the National Football League's best-known players, helped the Kansas City Chiefs win three Super Bowls alongside star quarterback Patrick Mahomes. He also co-hosts the popular sports and pop culture podcast "New Heights."
RECORD-SETTING CAREER
In June, Swift was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, 20 years after her first hit single.
Beginning in country music before finding pop megastardom, Swift has won an unparalleled four Grammy Album of the Year awards. And her latest, "The Life of a Showgirl," sold more copies than any other album in its first week.
Kelce first tried to meet Swift after she performed at Kansas City, Missouri's Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Chiefs, as part of her Eras Tour, a retrospective of her two-decade career. He failed to make it through security and said on his podcast that he was "a little butthurt" he did not get the chance to meet Swift and give her a friendship bracelet bearing his phone number.
Swift was charmed, recounting on a later "New Heights" episode that the gesture reminded her of "an '80s John Hughes movie, and he was just like, standing outside of my window with a boombox and being like, 'I want to date you.'"
She said she thought, "If this guy isn't crazy, which is a big if, this is sort of what I've been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager."
In a documentary about the Eras Tour, Swift said, "The most meaningful relationship I’ve ever had started with a man saying he was butthurt that I didn’t want to meet him,” adding it was the "greatest surprise of my life."
Kelce went on to attend multiple Eras Tour performances and surprised a London audience by taking the stage in a tuxedo and top hat and carrying Swift to a couch during the song "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart."
The athlete explained their chemistry in an interview with GQ magazine.
"We are two fun-loving people who have the morals to appreciate everyone for who they are," he said. "We share all those values."
(Reporting by Kurt Hall and Nathan Layne in New York and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Scott Malone, Daniel Wallis, Cynthia Osterman and Deepa Babington)
