One of Travis Kelce’s former flames allege that he may this Toxic Dating

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce attended an Oscars after-party. Now, there’s no photos of them attending said after-party (a Gucci one, by the way, held at talent manager Guy Oseary’s Los Angeles mansion). But we know they went because an anonymous source tipped off Entertainment Tonight with, well, an incredibly innocuous reveal: “They spent most of the night close together and by each other’s sides and looked happy and in love.”

They didn’t have to go incognito. Although there was a strict no-photos policy at the fête, artist J.R. was on hand to take portraits of everyone from Matthew McConaughey to Selma Hayek. And then there’s the fact that the couple could have party-hopped (and been photographed) elsewhere in town. But they simply chose to stay out of the spotlight—and they succeeded.

Which, for the Swift and Kelce, is no easy feat. From the moment they hard-launched their relationship in September 2023, NFL cameras seemed permanently fixed on Swift in the stands at Kansas City Chiefs Games. Paparazzi trailed them on every date night in New York City. Then there were the TikToks—so many TikToks!—of Kelce attending Swift’s Eras Tour concerts. (How so many people managed to capture his exact reaction when he heard Swift’s new lyrics to her song “Karma” for the first time (“Karma is a guy on the Chiefs”) was, when you think about it, truly an internet coup. It all culminated at Super Bowl LVIII, where more than 120 million people watched the couple embrace on the field after Kelce and co. took home the Vince Lombardi trophy. It was the most-watched Super Bowl in history.

For the most part, the spotlight was a warm one. Swift is a beloved performer and Kelce a beloved athlete, both with mega-passionate fanbases. It felt like two of America’s favorite people had joined forces—and there were statistics to prove it: “Lots of Americans like both Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce—and their new relationship,” read a YouGov poll from October 2023. When respondents were asked which of Swift’s romantic relationships was the “best match” for her, an overwhelming majority chose Kelce. (He came in first, at 22%, while Harry Styles was a distant second, at 8%, and Joe Alwyn floundered at 1%.)

However, that level of mega-fame always comes with a dark side. There was the snarky commentary: “The big difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL? At the Golden Globes, we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift,” Golden Globes host Jo Koy told an unamused crowd. Then, there were the wild conspiracy theories that swirled around the couple. The most persistent? That their relationship was orchestrated by the government as part of a psychological plot to influence Americans to vote for Joe Biden. They’d endorse him together at the Super Bowl. (No such thing happened.)