Rumors are again swirling that Taylor Swift’s much-hyped relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has been the biggest ruse pulled on pop fans in years.
The “Bad Blood” superstar may be participating in a “showmance,” using the parlance of publicists who set up artificial celebrity relationships in order to boost careers or shift the focus off scandals. Critics are pointing to past interviews by Kelce’s PR manager Jack Ketosyan where he admits to helping stage relationships undergirded by “love contracts” which require a couple to date for at least a year before separating again. After a “leaked” document emerged suggesting Swift and Kelce were only together to further their fame and fortune, Ketosyan forcefully pushed back on a report by the Daily Mail though was forced to admit he has been involved several times in creating artificial relationships. The contract is “entirely false and fabricated,” he said in a statement.
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Still, the rumors persist that the unusually media-savvy romance is more than meets the eye. Swift has made a number of prominent appearances at Chiefs games, even rushing on to the field to give her boyfriend a kiss in front of the cameras. Ketosyan has said in past interviews that such interactions are a great indicator of whether a “showmance” is taking place. During a 2019 interview with an Australian podcast, the publicist said pop star relationships are cultivated these days in order to generate buzz about an appearing or upcoming project, a change from prior decades when he would establish one to quell negative rumors or other bad news. He admitted to managing at least two staged relationships with stars thought declined to say who was involved.
“It’s to be able to sell the hype of it – whether a concert, album… or getting people to go to see the movie, it is all about the hype at the moment,” he explained, singling out one female celebrity who is now a “household name” thanks to working with him in a fake relationship. “It was more of a mutual agreement between the agents,” he recalled. “We had a male who actually had a movie coming out and it was getting a lot of bad reviews and slack and they wanted to take the negativity of the movie away and make it more about him. We found him a girl, a one-year deal, he finished off the press and a little bit after that they went their separate ways. She did not want to do a two-year deal.”
One of the “main clues,” Ketosyan added, is how the girl in a relationship suddenly becomes “the most talked-about” in Hollywood. In this case, the reverse may be true as Kelce jerseys are now among the most prized possessions owned by legions of Swifties.
In 2018, Ketosyan also realized a sultry novel about a showmance titled “Guilty Pleasure,” the synopsis of which reads: “As three young Hollywood professionals strive to keep the industry’s most salacious scandals under wraps during awards season, Nicola faces her biggest challenge as a publicist when she is forced to represent her superstar ex-boyfriend, Seamus, when he returns from rehab. Her boss Gaynor is struggling to keep the PR agency afloat, and Seamus is one client who definitely won’t leave as long as Nicola is around. He’s willing to do anything to win her back—even start a fake relationship for some badly needed good publicity.”
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