The Shady Sides Of Travis Kelce's Parents Donna And Ed

NFL stars Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce have rocketed to stardom both on the field and off, and to keep it a family affair, they've managed to bring their parents along with them. With game day cameras often cutting away to the proud parents in the stadium box watching their sons, Donna and Ed Kelce often come off as sweet as apple pie. But beyond the smiles and compliments, a little reading between the lines reveals a shadier side to Donna and Ed's public personas.

It goes without saying that much of the family's added spotlight comes from the fact that Travis is currently dating Taylor Swift. However, the Kelce family has been chasing fame even before Swift found her perfect love story in Travis. The Kelce brothers started their podcast, "New Heights," a full year before Swift entered the picture, though their parents weren't brought on the show until 2023. With the additional attention comes added scrutiny, and it turns out that the Kelce parents are capable of casting side-eye like the rest of us.

Unlike most of us, Donna Kelce wasn't exactly a Swiftie before Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift's love story began. When Hoda Kotb tried to get a first impression from Donna on the "Today" show, what came out wasn't exactly complimentary. Asked about meeting Swift when her son faced off against the Chicago Bears, Donna said, "Yeah, it's — you know, it is fairly new, so I don't like to talk about it. It's just one of those things where, you know, obviously everybody saw me. I was in the boxes with her. And, yeah, it's just, you know, another thing that's amped up my life." Put that way, it almost sounds like Swift was more of an inconvenience than a globe-conquering superstar that most people would die to be seated with.

Co-host Savannah Guthrie tried to press Donna for details, saying, "'What was she like? I mean, so you got to know her a little bit. Got to sit with her a couple games. How was it?" But Donna didn't appear to be in the mood for questions and let the imaginations of everyone everywhere down by simply replying, "It was okay." Granted, it's fair to think maybe Mama Kelce doesn't want to know too much about her son's love life, as she responded to Guthrie's question as to whether Travis warned her to remain tight-lipped by saying, "It's not so much a warning as it's his personal life."

Donna had a second chance to warm up to Taylor Swift while walking the red carpet to support Travis Kelce's turn to acting, in which he has a role in Ryan Murphy's new FX show "Grotesquerie." But again, she seemed to have little to say. When asked by E! News about her favorite thing about Swift after spending more time together, Donna replied, "It's still new. I don't really have any profound thoughts or anything like that. We just have the best time, you know, cheering Travis on."

The less-than-stellar review of private time with one of the biggest celebrities in the world could be a roundabout dig at her son's new girlfriend — or it could be Donna working through her own newness to red-carpet events. Whether Donna is drawing a blank space on the right compliment for everyone's favorite lonely poet or choosing to shake off Swift's gravitational popularity, all we know is that Donna is not afraid to do it her own way. For what it's worth, social media stans were quick to come to Donna's defense on X, formerly known as Twitter, regarding the media's questions about Swift.

Donna Kelce has been positioned as the perfect mother, a tireless woman who did everything necessary to see her two beautiful boys find success in the NFL, for which she earned an award as one of Glamour's Women of the Year. Now that Travis and Jason Kelce have found plenty of spotlight in the professional arena, Donna has been happy to get some of their shine. She scored deals to promote Budweiser and Kind bars, as well as appearing in NFL promos with her sons. Exact numbers couldn't be found, but you can bet that Donna made some pretty good dough for capitalizing on her newfound fame.

And she's not done. The U.S. Sun reported that Donna recently signed a whopping $6 million deal for a two-year contract with Amazon Prime Video, in which she is supposedly going to star in a yet-to-be-named cooking show. The reportedly hour-long show will continue to milk her NFL connections, as guests are rumored to be players and personalities from the football world. An avid baker and cook herself, only time will tell if Donna's star can ever eclipse that of her sons.

As for dad, Ed Kelce has apparently been banned "for life" from X. According to People, he tipped the world off to being on Elon Musk's blacklist by commenting under a Facebook post about arms dealers allegedly selling weapons in Yemen, saying, "Arms dealers are free to peddle their wares on X, but I'm banned for life and they won't say why, just a generic 'Terms Of Service' violation."

Ed said he was tired of Musk's "trolls" and went on to explain his side of things, saying, "I was active on X/Twitter from September to February, reading others' posts. Apparently the X Twits believe I posted something contrary to their rules in May or June 2023. Never happened. I'm guessing I was hacked, as the platform isn't all that secure. My comments when I started this conversation were merely to highlight the hypocrisy of these social media turds." The proud papa said he really only cruises X to see what's being said about his sons, but as any overly online consumer can tell him, it's probably better to just log off.

Burgeoning social media influencer or troll? Ed Kelce seems to do both. He recently went head-to-head with former "Real Housewives of New York City" star Bethenny Frankel, who may have spoken a little too freely when going on Instagram Live while doing her makeup. According to People, Frankel shared her opinion on Travis Kelce with the claim that he "loves to be the center of attention." She went on to compare him to her ex-boyfriend, which either means she doesn't much like Travis or Travis would not stand Frankel.

But Ed came to his son's defense, as he posted a link on Facebook to an article about Frankel's comments, saying, "Who TF is this troll?" Commenters beneath Ed's post were reliably on his side, though it's easy to see how his quick social media trigger finger could get him in trouble. And for what it's worth, Ed's Facebook profile at least identifies a sense of self-awareness to his troll-inclined nature, identifying himself with the caption, "Howling at nothing." His work history also lists him as "Self-Employed as a lazy bum at Self-Employed." So, kind of shady or maybe goals?