Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Dated for Months Before That First Chiefs Game—and Nobody Knew

The old Taylor can't come to the phone right now, she's busy being named TIME's Person of the Year!

No surprises there, as it feels Swift has taken over the world even more than previous years, with 4/6 re-releases completed, a sold-out global stadium tour, a box-office hit of a tour film, and a very public romance with NFL star, Travis Kelce.

In her exclusive interview with TIME, Swift discusses this fairytale relationship, and revealed that everything is not quite what it seems.

Many believed that Swift's first appearance at a Chiefs game marked their first date, which is a notion she quickly dismisses.

“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” she said. “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. 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.”

It would be a bit of a strange first date, but it's interesting to note that they were seeing one another for a "significant amount of time" before things progressed to a more public level. This also makes everything seem less quick (like spending Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas together) as their relationship has been going on for longer than we realized.

Swift acknowledges this as she says that she will continue attending Kelce's games and he will visit her concerts—free tickets to the Eras Tour? Who wouldn't go?

“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” she said. “The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone. And we’re just proud of each other.”

This definitely seems like a veiled reference at her relationship with Joe Alwyn, with whom their relationship was secret for over a year and then extremely private. The pair were seen less together in public over six years than Kelce and Swift over the last six months.

This definitely makes you wonder which of them were so determined to keep it private. Alwyn was noticeably absent from her performances even before breakup rumors starting swirling.

As for whether Swift minds being so publicized at Chiefs games, she seems to brush off the issue. She claims to enjoy football and is focused on supporting Kelce.

“I’m just there to support Travis,” she said. “I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”

Swift is truly entering her best era yet, where she's happy in love and enjoying herself. We can't wait to see more of it unfold, and for now, let's toast to the well-deserved Person of the Year!