The news that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got engaged has ripped through the internet like wildfire. Taylor Swift gave her fans what they desired, photos of their fairytale engagement. It landed like an asteroid — sending millions of Swifties into a teary frenzy of joy.
This much joy experienced at once is good for the heart, and a reminder of what love stories — fairytale happy endings — can do for the human soul. This is why we need them so desperately, and yet, we don’t seem to get them anymore —at least not in Hollywood. We don’t get Pretty Woman or When Harry Met Sally. Hollywood has seemed intent on punishing their viewers for wanting what they want rather than what they should want. For whatever reason that has meant no really great love stories. I don’t mean politically correct love stories, I mean these kinds, the ones that make you swoon with the guy getting down on one knee at the end.
The Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce romance was, for me, an escape from a truly terrifying moment in my professional and personal life that happened last year around this time, just before the Telluride Film Festival began. After a piece about me appeared in the Hollywood Reporter, a chill fell over the industry, and in an instant, I was no longer welcome.
It was a shocking reality, especially going to Telluride so soon after, and how I was treated by the publicists there — taken off of lists to parties, not invited to screenings or the Patron’s Brunch. It was wild. And though Scott Kernen will be covering it this year for the site, I’m not exactly experiencing FOMO.
But what I had was the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce romance to distract me. I would stay glued to the livestreams of the Eras tour, wherever they may be. So those of us paying attention could watch their love story unfold like a movie. It made me think about movies and how they used to be an escape rather than the continual “lesson” by our moral betters to teach us, fix us, correct us. BLEH.
Thank goodness there is real life now and real life just gave us a hell of a love story.
I watched it all play out during the Eras tour as people would live stream it from country to country. The Travis Kelce romance was playing out. We would see when he waited for her backstage, or when he was in the audience.
And of course, we lost our minds when he appeared on stage to perform with Taylor:
Then, this mash-up dedicated to Travis, as he stood in the bleachers tearing up was a pretty good indication that this was not only real love, it was love she didn’t mind playing out in public and sharing with her millions of fans.
Most of her romances have played out in private. This one, however, was not.
This love story seems to be the happy ending for so many of her songs of heartbreak, like You Belong with Me
And Love Story:
And then, that hopeful young girl whose heart has been broken so many times seemed to hit its peak with All Too Well, which was turned into a short film:
Well now, that girl has her fairytale ending at long last with a guy who loves her and screams it from the rooftops.
Needless to say, it was bedlam on TikTok:
Their love story turns out to be something we didn’t even know we needed. It was shocking enough that she was so open about their relationship on the podcast, New Heights, something she’d never done before.
Into our divided torn-apart world comes this unexpected romance. Our country is full of such hatred — it feels like poison. Every day it just gets worse.
Swift has been entangled in politics for some time now. She endorsed Kamala Harris and has taken public positions against Donald Trump. In turn, he’s hit back publicly at her, saying she’s no longer “hot,” which is not true. But the Left has come after her, too, especially lately, accusing her of hanging out with Brittany Mahomes, who is a Trump supporter, and for not being vocal enough against the war in Gaza.
My thought was, leave the woman alone. She’s put her entire life into making music and performing for all of you for decades. Let her enjoy her life. Let her fall in love and get married. She’s earned it. She owes you nothing. She’s a billionaire because she worked hard for it. None of it was handed to her.
Though she’s taken a side politically, she doesn’t feel the need to do what so many other celebrities do – prove to them that they are one side and everyone else who doesn’t agree must be on the other. Everyone can enjoy Taylor Swift’s music and delight in her engagement. It’s something we need in our lives and something that’s been missing for a long time now. We have very few things that unite us. This is one of them.
Hollywood should take a lesson from Swift. Leave the utopia building to churches and political parties. Swift understands her fans and delivers for them what they expect from her, which is why she gave them the gift of sharing the happiness of finally getting the fairytale. It’s a beautiful thing.
Congratulations to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. May their marriage be happy and may their love last forever.
