Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce attended an Oscars after-party. Now, there’s no images of them attending mentioned after-party (a Gucci one, by the way in which, held at expertise supervisor Man Oseary’s Los Angeles mansion). However we all know they went as a result of an nameless supply tipped off Leisure Tonight with, effectively, an extremely innocuous reveal: “They spent many of the evening shut collectively and by one another’s sides and seemed comfortable and in love.”

They didn’t should go incognito. Though there was a strict no-photos coverage on the fête, artist J.R. was readily available to take portraits of everybody from Matthew McConaughey to Selma Hayek. After which there’s the truth that the couple may have party-hopped (and been photographed) elsewhere on the town. However they merely selected to remain out of the highlight—and so they succeeded.

Which, for the Swift and Kelce, isn’t any straightforward feat. From the second they hard-launched their relationship in September 2023, NFL cameras appeared completely mounted on Swift within the stands at Kansas Metropolis Chiefs Video games. Paparazzi trailed them on each date evening in New York Metropolis. Then there have been the TikToks—so many TikToks!—of Kelce attending Swift’s Eras Tour live shows. (How so many individuals managed to seize his actual response when he heard Swift’s new lyrics to her track “Karma” for the primary time (“Karma is a man on the Chiefs”) was, when you consider it, really an web coup. All of it culminated at Tremendous Bowl LVIII, the place greater than 120 million folks watched the couple embrace on the sector after Kelce and co. took dwelling the Vince Lombardi trophy. It was the most-watched Tremendous Bowl in historical past.

For probably the most half, the highlight was a heat one. Swift is a beloved performer and Kelce a beloved athlete, each with mega-passionate fanbases. It felt like two of America’s favourite folks had joined forces—and there have been statistics to show it: “A number of Individuals like each Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce—and their new relationship,” learn a YouGov ballot from October 2023. When respondents have been requested which of Swift’s romantic relationships was the “finest match” for her, an awesome majority selected Kelce. (He got here in first, at 22%, whereas Harry Types was a distant second, at 8%, and Joe Alwyn floundered at 1%.)

Nonetheless, that degree of mega-fame at all times comes with a darkish aspect. There was the snarky commentary: “The large distinction between the Golden Globes and the NFL? On the Golden Globes, we have now fewer digital camera pictures of Taylor Swift,” Golden Globes host Jo Koy instructed an unamused crowd. Then, there have been the wild conspiracy theories that swirled across the couple. Essentially the most persistent? That their relationship was orchestrated by the federal government as a part of a psychological plot to affect Individuals to vote for Joe Biden. They’d endorse him collectively on the Tremendous Bowl. (No such factor occurred.)