Swifties Delight, Then Recoil, From Travis Kelce’s Old Tweets

Taylor Swift fans were delighted to discover Travis Kelce’s old posts about Olive Garden and squirrels. Then comments about “ugly girls” and “fat people” resurfaced.

For celebrities riding a wave of fame, it may well be a rite of passage: new scrutiny to old social media posts. This week, it was Travis Kelce’s turn, as fans of Taylor Swift took delight in mundane tweets by her apparent boyfriend from his early 20s.

Then internet sleuths turned up other tweets — since deleted — that proved to be more troubling. They showed the future Kansas City Chiefs player commenting about “ugly girls” and “fat people.” Another included a slur that people with disabilities have long urged people to avoid.

At first, Swift’s fans found Kelce’s streams of consciousness from more than a decade ago on Twitter to be relatable, hilarious and even endearing.

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Lola Fadulu is a general assignment reporter on the Metro desk of The Times. She was part of a team that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2023 for coverage of New York City’s deadliest fire in decades. More about Lola Fadulu

Isabella Kwai is a breaking news reporter in the London bureau. She joined The Times in 2017 as part of the Australia bureau. More about Isabella Kwai

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