Alone in his car on the eve of the biggest game of the season, Travis Kelce put off joining his team to console Taylor Swift, thousands of miles away on tour in Brazil.
The Kansas City tight end, 34, spent more than thirty minutes on the phone to Taylor, in an emotional call placed the moment she left the stage at Nilton Santos Stadium in Rio.
Pictures obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com show Kelce arriving at the team hotel Sunday night, ahead of tonight’s game.
But while other players dropped their cars and headed straight in, Travis was seen on the phone with his lover, sad and disappointed that their reunion tonight was not meant to be.
Kelce looked relieved as he spoke with his sweetheart. He appeared completely preoccupied and his somber expression was a world away from the smiling swagger his fans have grown used to seeing since he first started stepping out with Swift.
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Exclusive DailyMail.com photos show Travis Kelce arriving at the team hotel Sunday night where he took an emotional call from Taylor Swift
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Swift became emotional during her live performance in Rio de Janeiro Sunday night – her first show since the tragic death of a fan who died at her show on Friday
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Swift postponed her Sunday show for a day after a 23-year-old fan died of cardiac arrest in the punishing heat. That means she’ll miss Kelce’s Monday night game against the Eagles
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Travis was seen Sunday night before taking a call from his lover, sad and disappointed that their reunion was not meant to be
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Kelce had hoped Swift would be there to cheer him on tonight when the Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles
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Kelce consoled and supported a tearful Swift ahead of his big game Monday night
Swift, 33, made a tearful return to the stadium Sunday night when she told fans how much she loved them and dedicated a song to 23-year-old Ana Clara Benvides, the fan who died of cardiac arrest Friday in the same punishing heat that saw Swift postpone Saturday’s concert until tonight.
The change threw the lovers’ plans into disarray as Kelce had hoped Swift would be there to cheer him on Monday when the Kansas City Chiefs play the Philadelphia Eagles – a Superbowl rematch and a game that pits Kelce against his brother Jason.
Instead, it fell to him to console and support tearful Swift ahead of joining his team Sunday night.
Swift’s attendance at Monday night’s game would have been further proof of just how much she has been embraced by the Kelce family as the clan turn out in force to support brothers Jason – center for the Philadelphia Eagles – and Travis, whose sibling rivalry is an extraordinary story of NFL success.
But more than that, this trip to Kansas City was to have been the first time Kelce shared his new home with the woman he is very clearly placing at the center of his world.
DailyMail.com can reveal that Kelce has now moved into the $6million home he purchased last month with Swift and their life together firmly in mind.
Swift had been expected to fly into Missouri Monday after performing in Rio Sunday night. But she postponed Sunday’s show for a day amid concerns over crowd safety in the soaring Rio heat.
Instead of excitedly anticipating her arrival, Kelce cut a somber figure as he ran errands solo late Sunday morning. Dressed with the casual flair for which he has become known, in a camo tracksuit and slides, he stopped to pick up mail before driving into the luxurious gated community in which he now lives.
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Taylor Swift seemed to struggle with her breathing in the extreme 100°F heat during her concert in Rio de Janeiro on Friday night, prompting her to postpone Saturday’s show
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Travis and Taylor pictured sharing a kiss after her show in Buenos Aires, Argentina
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DailyMail.com can reveal that Kelce has now moved into the $6million home he purchased last month with Swift and their life together firmly in mind
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Kelce felt that his previous home in Kansas City was too accessible
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Kelce opened up in a new interview and said, ‘Being around her, seeing how smart Taylor is, has been f***ing mind-blowing. I’m learning every day’
Kelce bought the sprawling property last month, parting with millions to buy a little more privacy for Swift with whom, sources say, he is keen to settle down.
According to the hugely popular celebrity Instagram page and Podcast Deuxmoi there has been ‘very solid’ talk of an engagement between the two mega-stars.
Speaking last week, the famously anonymous host claimed, ‘Absolutely no-one is staying tight-lipped about this. He has already asked her dad for permission and he has already given it.’
Following the ‘kiss heard around the world’ when Swift ran from the stage in Buenos Aires and into the waiting arms of Kelce standing in the wings, Deuxmoi stated, ‘She expects a proposal around her birthday (December 13) or Christmas and wants to end the tour a married woman and start a family immediately after.’
Certainly, Kelce’s new pad in Kansas City, where he is contracted until 2026 having signed a $57million four-year extension in 2020, is a palace fit for a pop princess.
It is set in woodland and lush expansive lawns with a six-car garage for all of auto enthusiast Kelce’s many rides, a lighted tennis court, miniature golf course and pickleball court in a lot that stretches over three acres of seclusion.
For Kelce family has always been key – mom Donna even joined her sons to take part in an advert for Campbell’s Soup – and the new pad is the ideal place to start one of his own.
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Swift fans waited for the doors of Nilton Santos Olympic stadium to open for her Eras Tour concert amid a heat wave in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday before the show was called off
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A girl feels sick from high temperatures as she waits outside the stadium for the concert
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The songstress posted a heartfelt message after already having arrived at Nilton Santos Olympic Stadium in preparation for the event
And while his mother Donna, 71, has admitted on GMA that her son ‘likes attention so long as he can handle it,’ he has also made it clear that there is little he enjoys more than time holed up with Swift.
Speaking on New Heights, the podcast he shares with his brother, Kelce revealed that when Swift had to postpone a show in Buenos Aires during his visit due to storms, he and she ‘stayed in the hotel and kind of kept to ourselves.’
He added, ‘She prides herself on performing through weather and rain and things like that but when it’s unsafe to her and everybody in the room you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.’
When she did perform on the stage at Estadio River Plate stadium, with Kelce in the crowd Swift made her most public display of affection so far with a sweet lyric change in honor of Kelce before that kiss.
Surrounded by her backup dancers on stage Swift belted out, ‘Karma is the guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me,’ replacing the original lyric, ‘Karma is the guy on the screen coming straight home to me.’
On Monday, Wall Street Journal magazine published a sprawling interview with Kelce where he revealed that someone in Swift’s team helped set them up after he opened up on his failed attempt to give her his number after her an Eras show in Kansas City.
‘There were definitely people she knew that knew who I was, in her corner [who said]: Yo! Did you know he was coming? I had somebody playing Cupid,’ Kelce said.
It didn’t take long for them to arrange a first date but even for Kelce, who usually exudes confidence on the football field, there were some nerves.
Kelce describes the build-up as: ‘Everybody around me telling me ‘don’t f*** this up’ and me sitting here saying ‘yeah, got it’.
‘When I met her in New York, we had already kind of been talking, so I knew we could have a nice dinner and, like, a conversation, and what goes from there will go from there.’
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NFL star Travis Kelce has opened up on his whirlwind romance with Taylor Swift
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Travis and Taylor pictured together in New York in October when their relationship was public
He said he was worried about making a mis-step in those early days: ‘That was the biggest thing to me: make sure I don’t say anything that would push Taylor away.’
But they clearly hit it off and Kelce describes Swift as ‘hilarious’ and a ‘genius’.
‘Being around her, seeing how smart Taylor is, has been f***ing mind-blowing. I’m learning every day,’ he said.
Kelce said that he and Taylor sang ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ together at a late night party at his house in Kansas City.
‘There was some wine involved, for sure,’ he joked.
Kelce also admitted that Swift’s fame has inevitably had an impact on his own life and it is something he is adjusting to.
‘Obviously I’ve never dated anyone with that kind of aura about them…. I’ve never dealt with it,’ Kelce explained. ‘But at the same time, I’m not running away from any of it.
‘The scrutiny she gets, how much she has a magnifying glass on her, every single day, paparazzi outside her house, outside every restaurant she goes to, after every flight she gets off, and she’s just living, enjoying life. When she acts like that I better not be the one acting all strange.’
