Footage of Travis Kelce kissing Taylor Swift at midnight on New Year’s Day quickly spread across social media. While many people just focused on the long kiss itself (viewable here), other Swifties theorized that Kelce may have whispered something significant to Swift: that he loves her, per TMZ. They speculated that the confession happened in the first few seconds of the clip.
TMZ contacted a few professional lip readers, “some who’ve testified in high-profile court cases,” the outlet wrote. The lip readers’ consensus was that the video is far too blurry to make any call on a public love declaration.
Still, sources have spoken about Swift and Kelce being in love six months into their relationship. On November 22, a source told Us Weekly that Swift and Kelce had even recently started using the L-word.
A second source described things as “getting very serious [between them]. Taylor sees long-term potential with Travis.”
Swift and Kelce have been more public with their relationship, but neither has posted anything about it on their Instagram Stories or grid yet. Swift explained why the two are more willing to date out in the open during her Time magazine interview in December.
“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 explained. “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.”
She added, “Over the years, I’ve learned I don’t have the time or bandwidth to get pressed about things that don’t matter. Yes, if I go out to dinner, there’s going to be a whole chaotic situation outside the restaurant. But I still want to go to dinner with my friends.
“Life is short,” she continued. “Have adventures. Me locking myself away in my house for a lot of years—I’ll never get that time back. I’m more trusting now than I was six years ago.”
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she’s not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.