The Celebrity Power Couple Is So Back

It started with a push notification. Then another. And another. Was it a natural disaster? Peace in Ukraine? Contact with alien life?

None of the above. But for terminally online people who get their major updates via PopCrave, it was equally seismic: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce were engaged. The news was confirmed with a fairytale-like Instagram post and a caption in Swift’s signature millennial cringe-core register, which read: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”

Over the last few years, a string of high-profile divorces and — how to put this delicately? — unchic couplings have made the “celebrity power couple” feel like an endangered species. But there is something distinctly old-school about how Taylor and Travis combine the worlds of sport and music in a way that we haven’t seen since David and Victoria Beckham at the turn of the millennium. And as memes about the engagement flood our feeds, and as celebrities line up to show fealty to their new king and queen, it feels like Taylor and Travis aren’t just reviving the celebrity power couple — they’re also making it fun again.

By definition, a “celebrity power couple” typically requires two people at a similar level of fame. And if they’re from different industries, there is more opportunity to level-up. Take Kim Kardashian and Kanye West (now Ye), for example. Their relationship propelled Kardashian into fashion spaces she had previously been shunned from, like the Met Gala and the cover of Vogue, and her shapewear brand, Skims, is now valued at $4 billion.

Unsurprisingly, “Kimye” didn’t make it, with Kardashian filing for divorce in 2021. And they’re not the only ones: “Bennifer” (Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck) also ended their whirlwind reconciliation when Lopez filed divorce papers on their second wedding anniversary. In fact, Hollywood’s power publicists have been working overtime in recent years, with — deep breath! — Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas, Channing Tatum and Zoë Kravitz, Gisele Bündchen and Tom Brady, Shakira and Gerard Piqué, Lily Allen and David Harbour, Dakota Johnson and Chris Martin and, most recently, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom all calling it quits.

Since Taylor and Travis started dating in 2023, their relationship has been defined by their very public displays of affection. (This was a stark contrast to Swift’s more private relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn, whom she was with for around six years.) From the start, their honeymoon period was carefully choreographed — like when Swift turned up in a red jersey in the player’s box to cheer on Kelce alongside his mom. And Kelce? He played his part, too, by gazing back at her and (seemingly) muttering: “DAMN, SHE’S RIGHT THERE!” And her attendance at the 2024 Super Bowl, where she rushed onto the field to kiss Kelce after he won, coincided with a record-breaking 123.4 million viewers — the highest-rated U.S. TV audience since the moon landing.

Beyond their shrewd marketing, it’s easy to root for this couple for a very simple reason: They’re genuinely pretty cute.

Truthfully, I didn’t know much about Kelce before they started dating. (And I only know which team he plays for because Swift changed one of her lyrics to reference the “guy on the Chiefs coming straight home to me.”) But that didn’t stop me and 80,000 others shrieking — so loudly that my ears may never fully recover — when Kelce appeared onstage at the Eras Tour in London last summer.

And though Swift occupies phenomenal monoculture status, even she has been able to reach new people and expand her influence on account of their relationship. When she announced her upcoming album, Life of a Showgirl, during a cutesy appearance on her beau’s New Heights podcast, it broke YouTube’s viewership records. This was likely a result of devoted Swifties tuning in, but it also minted new Swifties — or at least the Swiftie-curious — who may never have heard her talking about her work in her own words.

Beyond their shrewd marketing, it’s easy to root for this couple for a very simple reason: They’re genuinely pretty cute. Similarly to Zendaya and Tom Holland, and Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker, they offer no shortage of proof that they are totally, wildly into each other. And unlike the notably more private Kylie Jenner and Timothée Chalamet, who have only appeared on a red carpet together once, “Tayvis” practically demand our attention.

Writing about Swift and Kelce’s very in-your-face courtship in 2023, Anne Helen Petersen noted that Swift “gets that the best, most addictive part of a relationship is the beginning,” and that she “understands what audiences want most is a celebrity relationship that plays out like it’s high school.” I remembered this when I saw Swift’s immaculately presented engagement post, which included “So High School” — a track she wrote about an adult relationship that re-creates the feeling of your first, most intoxicating love. And publicly, at least, their relationship is that story — the simple jock and the book-smart girl who teaches him “big words.”

Their embrace of these archetypes makes it clear the true definition of “power couple” isn’t just about combining individual might. Really, it’s the extent to which two people are able to come together to build something bigger than either could achieve alone. In that sense, David and Victoria Beckham will always be a blueprint. In 1999, when they got married on thrones in a castle, they declared themselves celebrity royalty — complete with their very own “Beckingham Palace.” They built a brand that was greater than the sum of their parts. Together, they were Posh and Becks.

While it’s easy to view this engagement as a corporate merger, it has been undeniably endearing to see Swift — whose relationship history has become a lazy punchline — finally find happiness with someone who doesn’t seem to actively resist her fame, or see it as an obstacle. Instead, her new fiancé seems to enjoy maximizing their joint slay in fun, corny ways. The showgirl has finally met her match — a co-star who can share the stage, and help her put on an even bigger show.