WASHINGTON — Taylor Swift is setting the record straight on the timeline of her relationship with Travis Kelce.
Swift, who was named TIME's Person of the Year on Wednesday, shared details with the magazine about how her romance with the Kansas City Chiefs tight end flourished.
Many fans remember, all too well, when the global icon appeared at the Chiefs and Chicago Bears game in September. Like many other things Swift does, her appearance sent the internet into chaos.
While Kelce has shared some details on his podcast about his relationship with Swift, a timeline has never been clear until now.
"This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell," she told TIME magazine. "We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other."
"By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple," she continued. "I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date."
Since that game in September, Swift has become a familiar face during Chiefs games. Between plays, she is often shown in a suite alongside her famous friends, Brittany Mahomes and even Donna Kelce. Her appearance at the Oct. 1 matchup between the Chiefs and the New York Jets quickly became the second-most watched NFL game of the year after the Super Bowl.
Speaking about the media craze surrounding her NFL appearances, the 33-year-old said she doesn't know "how they know what suite I'm in" and that she's "just there to support Travis."
"There’s a camera, like, a half-mile away, and you don’t know where it is, and you have no idea when the camera is putting you in the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being shown 17 times or once," she told TIME. "I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads."
Swift, who has always been reluctant to share details about her dating life, said that part of making a relationship public means "showing up for each other." Most recently, Kelce visited Swift during a tour stop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the two were not shy about showing affection.
The "Midnights" star even changed her song lyrics during the Nov. 11 show: “Karma is the guy on the Chiefs, coming straight home to me.”
Swift was picked as Person of the Year from a group of nine finalists that included Barbie, King Charles III, and OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, among others. Her year included the wildly popular Eras Tour and concert movie, the release of her reimagined ‘1989’ album, and her closely watched relationship with Kelce. She's even the subject of college courses.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.