WHEN it comes to love, Taylor Swift is a self-confessed Mastermind.
In the 2022 track of the same name, from her album Midnights, she teased fans: “What if I told you none of it was accidental?”
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Taylor Swift has made headlines around the world for her high-profile flingsCredit: The Mega Agency
And the 33-year-old certainly doesn’t seem to be leaving much to chance with new NFL boyfriend Travis Kelce, also 33, who got a very public introduction this week.
The new relationship, which made headlines around the world, conveniently comes just a month before the singer is due to release 1989 – Taylor’s Version, the latest in her run of re-recorded albums.
So is this a genuine relationship or just a “professional romance” to boost record sales?
Emily Fairbairn takes a closer look at Taylor’s new man and some of her exes to determine if they were a romance or promance . . .
Travis Kelce
PROMANCE
HAS Taylor ever been interested in American football before? Well she seems to be a big fan now!
The singer made sure all eyes were on her as she jumped and cheered on the Kansas City Chiefs tight end as he played the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
Travis Kelce is Taylor Swift’s newest loverCredit: Getty
Decked in the team’s red and white colours, no less, she joined the footballer’s mum, Donna, in the VIP suite.
And she even slapped on bold red lippy, a not-so-subtle reference to the lyrics “red lip classic thing that you like” from her hit song Style.
The track features on her 2014 album 1989 and the rerecorded version due out October 27.
When Taylor and Travis left the Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, the footballer was wearing an eye-catching blue and white denim jacket and jeans called The Bedroom Painting Set, from KidSuper Studio.
It has now been renamed the 1989 Bedroom Painting Set in an apparent nod to their relationsip.
And guess which year Travis was born? 1989 of course – just like Taylor!
Matty Healy
PROMANCE
AFTER The Sun revealed Taylor was dating The 1975 frontman Matty Healy in May, the pair went public.
Having kept previous boyfriend Joe Alwyn under wraps for seven years, with barely any pictures of them together in public, Taylor was suddenly snapped out in London and New York with her new man.
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The Sun broke the news of Matty Healy and Taylor’s romance this MayCredit: Getty
Matty, 34, cheered her on at three of her Eras tour shows and the pair were spotted piling on the PDA at a New York club accompanied by Jack Antonoff, who happens to have co-produced both The 1975’s most recent album and Tay’s Midnights.
But if this was a carefully managed promance, it didn’t go to plan.
Swifties went into meltdown over Matty’s controversial behaviour, including derogatory comments made earlier this year about the rapper Ice Spice.
Ever the professional, Taylor broke things off with Matty after just a few weeks and promptly released a remix with Ice Spice, appropriately named Karma.
Calvin Harris
ROMANCE
FANS had high hopes that a relationship between two of the most successful pop stars would result in new music.
But over the course of their 15-month romance the singer and super producer Calvin, 39, only collaborated on one song, This Is What You Came For, with Taylor using a pseudonym.
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Taylor and Calvin Harris dated for 15 months in the mid 2010’sCredit: Getty – Contributor
It seems for the most part that they were genuinely focused on love, rather than making money out of them dating.
From early 2015 until their split in June 2016 the pair posted a string of nauseating snaps on social media.
For their one-year anniversary they shared pics of themselves kissing on the beach with their initials in the sand.
Proof that this was more romance than promance, they endured a very messy break-up which screamed of a lack of stage management.
Calvin went on a series of social media rants after Taylor’s team revealed her involvement on their song, accusing her of trying to “bury” him and “controlling the media”.
Joe Alwyn
ROMANCE
BRITISH actor Joe takes the crown for being Taylor’s longest relationship thus far.
Together for seven years, from late 2016 until April 2023, the pair avoided red carpets and were rarely photographed.
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Joe Alwyn is Taylor’s longest relationshipCredit: Getty
At the start of their relationship, Joe, 32, was a little-known actor so Taylor had little to gain from making him her boyfriend.
On her 2019 album Lover, thought to be about Joe, Taylor sings about the romance of clearing up with her partner after a house party, painting a wall for his younger brother and watching rugby in the pub with his mates.
It was proof at last that, if she wants to, Taylor really can live a very private life.
Their romance continued to blossom out of the spotlight, first out of choice and then because of Covid lockdowns in Britain, where the pair were living.
But it seems to have fallen apart once Taylor was ready to reclaim the world stage with her record-breaking Eras tour, which kicked off in the US on March 2023.
Tom Hiddleston
PROMANCE
IF promance was introduced to the dictionary, you would find a picture of Taylor and Brit actor Tom, 42, next to it.
They started dating in June 2016, around the same time Kim Kardashian fanned the flames of a feud between her then husband Kanye West and the singer.
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Taylor & Tom Hiddleston are the archetypal promanceCredit: Splash
The reality star claimed she had proof Taylor had privately signed off on the rapper’s controversial song Famous – before publicly criticising it.
Taylor would go on to be branded a “snake”.
To change the narrative, she made sure she was seen on dates with the Night Manager star.
There were supposedly candid snaps of the pair snuggling on the rocks of a beach in Rhode Island.
And in a whirlwind three months they were spotted in Rome, California and Australia.
Photographers even managed to catch Taylor meeting Tom’s mum on a public beach in Suffolk.
But the most famous publicity stunt was Tom wearing an “I heart TS” vest in the sea near Taylor’s home.
They were “over” just weeks later.
Harry Styles
PROMANCE
THE country star started dating Harry, 29 – then a member of One Direction – just as she was transitioning to pop music with her album Red.
Coincidence, much? They are said to have met in March 2012 and were confirmed to be dating by November.
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Taylor has based many of her popular songs off her relationship with Harry StylesCredit: Splash News
The news devastated Directioners but boosted Taylor’s profile.
The pair were spotted strolling through Central Park in New York, kissing in Times Square on New Year’s Eve and wearing matching necklaces.
But it was over after just two months following a row in the Caribbean.
The promance provided plenty of inspo for her hits I Knew You Were Trouble and Style.
Jake Gyllenhaal
JURY’S OUT
THE timing doesn’t look good for this to have been a real romance.
When they went public in in October 2010, Jake, now 42, was due to promote his new movie Love And Other Drugs, starring Anne Hathaway, and Taylor had not long released hit album Speak Now.
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The jury is out on whether Taylor’s celeb relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal was a promanceCredit: Insight News and Features
But if it was all for show, would she have still been hung up on the Hollywood actor ten years later?
In 2021 Taylor re-released Red, featuring a ten-minute extended version of 2012 song All Too Well, said to be about the breakdown of their relationship.
The pop star revealed she was a “broken human” when she first wrote the song.
Joe Jonas
ROMANCE
THE singer’s two-month relationship with the Jonas Brother star is arguably her origin story.
Despite their short romance in 2009, Taylor was reported to have been furious when Joe, 34, dumped her via a 25-second phone call.
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Taylor dated Joe Jonas in 2009Credit: Getty – Contributor
But there was a silver lining – as she managed to write several hit songs about the break-up, Forever And Always, Last Kiss and, most memorably, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.
While Taylor was clearly heartbroken, a new blueprint had emerged.
A high- profile romance followed by an even more high-profile break-up worked to her advantage.
John Meyer
PROMANCE
WHILE it may have started out as a promance, Taylor appears to have regrets.
The pair dated briefly between 2009 and 2010, when Taylor was 19 and singer John was 32.
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Taylor was just 19 when she dated singer John Meyer, 32Credit: Getty
A few months after their break-up she released Dear John, featuring the lyrics: “Dear John, I see it all, now it was wrong/Don’t you think 19 is too young”.
He later said it “humiliated” him.
But on her Midnights album, Taylor went as far as to add caustic track Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, that appears to reference their age gap.
Lyrics include: “Give me back my girlhood, it was mine first/And I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil/At nineteen”.
Now the bigger of the two pop stars, Taylor also chose to tease the music video for single Lavender Haze just five minutes after John, 45, announced his solo acoustic tour.
Conor Kennedy
PROMANCE
When Taylor dated the grandson of former US President Robert F Kennedy in 2012 she made sure to dress the part – in 1950s dresses, retro polka-dot bikinis and ballet flats.
She had been vocal about her love for the policial family and seemed to relish dressing like Conor’s grandmother and former First Lady Jackie O.
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Taylor dated the grandson of former US President Robert F Kennedy in 2012
But the promance was over after just 2 months.
It is rumoured Taylor fell out with the Kennedy’s after “crashing” a family wedding and overshadowing the event, infuriating the bride’s mother.
