Taylor Swift lifts the lid on the early days of her relationship with Travis Kelce, saying they had a ‘significant amount of time that no one knew’ and were already a couple before she attended her first NFL game

Taylor Swift finally has opened up on her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, revealing the power couple began their love story long before she made headlines by attending his games.

The pop star, 33, who was named Time Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’, set the NFL ablaze when she became the headliner at the Chiefs’ win over the Chicago Bears to cheer on Kelce, 34, on September 24.

In the months since kickstarting her romance with the two-time Super Bowl champion, Swift has attended five of her NFL beau’s games, watching him lose for the first time in her presence on Sunday in frigid Green Bay.

But the 12-time Grammy Award winner has revealed that they only brought their relationship into the footballing – and global – spotlight after a while of dating behind closed doors.

‘This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,’ she told TIME magazine.

We started hanging out right after that. So we actually had a significant amount of time that no one knew, which I’m grateful for, because we got to get to know each other. By the time I went to that first game, we were a couple. I think some people think that they saw our first date at that game? We would never be psychotic enough to hard launch a first date.’

Kelce, now infamously, first tried to capture Swift’s attention when he attended her Eras Tour show at Arrowhead stadium in July, revealing on his New Heights podcast later in the summer that he made a friendship bracelet with his number on to give to the pop icon.

He failed to meet Swift behind the scenes of her sold-out tour but his ‘metal’ podcast antics eventually caught her attention with the songstress revealing they began dating immediately.

‘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 added.

‘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.’

Swift has been the star attraction at several of Kelce’s Chiefs game this season, first making an appearance in the bleachers during Kansas City’s Week 3 41-10 rout of the Bears.

She has since been spotted in the stands at Arrowhead another two times, as well as supporting him alongside her celebrity posse, including Blake Lively, Sophie Turner and Ryan Reynolds, at MetLife Stadium when Kansas City played the New York Jets and at Lambeau Field against the Packers on Sunday.

The global icon has also become firm and fast friends with Chiefs quarterback and Kelce’s pal Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, who has been spotted with Swift in private suites cheering on their men.

However, Swift had to put cheerleading duties to one side as she returned to the stage for the South American leg of her wildly popular Eras Tour last month.

Swift entertained the masses once again as she performed her sold-out show in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

But it was Kelce who took up the role of supportive partner, jetting out to the Argentinian capital during the Chiefs’ bye week to watch his girlfriend, adorably waiting backstage following the three-hour-long show to greet her with a kiss.

The pride and support Kelce and Swift have for each other is evident with the NFLer previously opening up on their relationship and hailing the talented star as a ‘genius’.

Kelce first opened up on the developments in his love life during his Wall Street Journal interview with JR Moehringer, the ghostwriter of Prince Harry’s book, ‘Spare’.

Kelce revealed that someone in Swift’s team helped set them up after he opened up on his failed attempt to give her his number after her an Eras show in Kansas City.

‘There were definitely people she knew that knew who I was, in her corner [who said]: Yo! Did you know he was coming? I had somebody playing Cupid,’ Kelce said.

It didn’t take long for them to arrange a first date but even for Kelce, who usually exudes confidence on the football field, there were some nerves.

Kelce describes the build-up as: ‘Everybody around me telling me ‘don’t f*** this up’ and me sitting here saying ‘yeah, got it’.

‘When I met her in New York, we had already kind of been talking, so I knew we could have a nice dinner and, like, a conversation, and what goes from there will go from there.’

He said he was worried about making a mis-step in those early days: ‘That was the biggest thing to me: make sure I don’t say anything that would push Taylor away.’