Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce’s love life has been a subject of great interest since he started dating pop icon Taylor Swift in 2023. However, even before she came on the scene he had a few relationships that fascinated fans. He even had his very own dating show! Clearly, there’s something special about this guy when it comes to romance.
Here’s Kelce’s surprising dating history so far.
Maya Benberry
Kelce had his very own Bachelor-style TV show on E! in 2016 called Chasing Kelce. A woman from each state arrived to try and win his heart. He apparently found it so overwhelming that he referred to people by where they were from. The winner was Kentucky, more commonly known as Maya Benberry. Benberry worked as a marketing and brand consultant and is now a publicist and online personality.
At the time he picked Benberry, he expressed some concerns, The Sun reported.
“I love your confidence, but at times it does get overconfident,” he told her. “It kind of shows arrogance. I have been attracted to women like that my entire life, and those relationships didn’t work because of that.”
The relationship didn’t last more than a month or two. At the time it ended, she wrote on Twitter, according to The Shade Room, “When you and your ex broke up five months ago, but you find out via social media that he has supposedly been in another relationship for 6…”
Benberry has maintained the allegations that Kelce cheated on her, even telling DailyMail.com that Taylor Swift should beware after news broke that the NFL player and pop star were dating.
“Taylor seems like such a fun girl with a beautiful spirit, so I wish her the best of luck, but I wouldn’t be a girls’ girl if I didn’t advise her to be smart!” Benberry said. “I’m sure by now she has mastered the ability to see who is really there for her—and who is just using her.”
She continued, “Only time will tell. But like the saying always goes: Once a cheater, always a cheater.”
A source close to Kelce told TMZ that he and Benberry only dated for “a month,” and her cheating accusations were for “15 minutes of fame.”
Another source told Page Six that they were contractually obligated to delay the announcement of their breakup, which might be the alleged issue with their timeline.
Kayla Nicole
Sports journalist and fitness fashion influencer Kayla Nicole and Kelce dated off-and-on for five years, beginning in 2017. It started when he followed her on Instagram, and they started DMing.
“I was just stalking her and then finally on New Year’s, she gave in,” he told E! “And, you know, New Year new me. She just shot her shot, jumped in my DMs, and the rest is history.”
The first known breakup between the pair came in August 2020, and it was rumored he had cheated on her. He denied it.
“This is fake news…a lie…and not why Kayla and I broke up… take all your hatred somewhere else please,” Kelce tweeted, according to TMZ.
They both made a habit of denying rumors. When they finally called it quits for good in May 2022, Barstool Sports suggested it was because the NFL star made Nicole pay half for everything.
“Not sure where y’all got this nonsense from, but it’s absurd and very false,” she tweeted in response.
He also denied that rumor, saying on The Pivot Podcast that he was not “too cheap” for Nicole, adding, “don’t buy into that shit.”
He continued, “I would never say that I was supporting her. She had a very financially stable life and what she was doing in her career.”
He added, “But you’ve got to be crazy if you’d think I would never helped or gave her a couple thousand to grab some food or she gave me some money to go get some food…. we were in a relationship for five years. A hundred dollars here, a hundred dollars there wasn’t even thought about.”
In January 2024, Nicole seemed to make a reference to the attention her old relationship was receiving after Kelce started dating Swift in a TikTok video. She has otherwise kept quiet about her ex’s new girlfriend.
She mouthed along to a popular sound, that states, “And to the rest of you… to the rest of you—the non-believers, the under-achievers, the tweet-and-deleters—you guys make me sick to my stomach, fam, honestly.”
Her caption read, “Fake page…cult following, keyboard warriors—maybe take the year off babe?”
Zuri Hall
It was never confirmed that Kelce dated Access Hollywood correspondent Zuri Hall. In October 2022, rumors circulated that they might be seeing each other when she was seen watching a Chiefs game in his family suite, according to Barstool Sports. There was also a video shared by one of Travis’ friends that appeared to show Hall with him in the background. Before these rumors, Hall and Nicole followed one another on social media. But then they didn’t. Make what you will or won’t of that.
Taylor Swift
In September 2023, Taylor Swift made her first appearance at a Kansas City Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium. It was later revealed they’d been dating for a few months after he tried to connect with her during one of her Eras Tour shows at the exact same venue.
The couple appear to still be going strong in the early months of 2024 after a long NFL season that culminated with the Chiefs’ big win at the Super Bowl—which Swift was present for.
Swift has been flying back and forth in between concerts to catch as many of Kelce’s games as possible, and is now on an international leg of her tour. He recently visited her in Sydney, Australia, in between shows and Super Bowl celebrations.