Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift announced their engagement on Instagram on Wednesday, but fans are now speculating that Kelce’s mother, Donna, may have leaked the news days before.
Talking to People at the premiere of ESPN's The Kingdom on Sunday evening, Donna Kelce was asked what was making her son so happy. "I think his mind is settled. That's about all I can tell you,” she said.
"I think he feels calm and he feels like he's on a mission and he knows exactly what he wants," the NFL star’s mother said.
Following the celebrity couples’ engagement, Ed Kelce, Travis’ father, revealed more detail about the union.
“Travis actually did the proposal, maybe two weeks ago, not quite two weeks ago,” Ed told Cleveland’s ABC News 5, “He was going to put it off till this week.”
He added that Swift was “getting a little antsy” in the days before the proposal. Ed told his son to keep it simple.
“I told him repeatedly, you could do it on the side of the road, do it any place that makes it a special event when you get down on one knee and ask her to marry you.”
As the celebrity couple prepares to tie the knot, here’s everything we know about Travis Kelce’s family members:
Ed Kelce - Father
Travis’ dad, Ed Kelce, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Like his sons, Ed played football at high school, but he aspired towards a military career.
“Everybody in my family prior to me was in the service," Ed explained on his sons’ podcast, New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce.
However, Ed wouldn’t follow in his family’s footsteps. His application was rejected due to a knee injury. Then, his enlistment for the Coast Guard was overturned when he discovered that he had Crohn’s disease.
Instead, Ed pursued a career in the steel industry. Then, in the late seventies, he met a woman who would become his wife.
The pair crossed paths at a bar called Fagan’s in Old Cleveland Flats. Ed was there for an after-work drink. Donna was about to go on another date. She never did.
The two began talking and she never met up with the other man. "I was supposed to go out with a guy that night. We were supposed to go to a play, and I never made it. Your dad and I talked forever,” Donna said on New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce.
On that fateful night, Donna said: "It was meant to be. It's just the way it was”. The pair married in the late seventies. They divorced about 25 years later.
Donna Kelce - Mother
Donna Kelce, Travis’ mum, was also born in Cleveland. Her mother died when she was 12 years old, and her father remarried a woman called Mary, who Donna said was a "wonderful human being”.
Donna’s father was reportedly opposed to women playing sports, but Mary helped her compete at the Junior Olympics in track and field. Donna won.
Donna went on to become the first person in her family to graduate from college, securing a degree from Ohio University, with Mary’s support.
"By the grace of God, if we didn't have [Mary] I don't think we would have made it," Donna said on New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, "I feel so fortunate that I was raised by her."
Donna worked for Mastercard, then worked at a local bank in Cleveland, specialising in commercial real estate finances.
On November 5, 1987, she gave birth to her first son Jason, followed by Travis, on October 5, 1989.
"Being a mom is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life," Donna told Glamour, after being selected by the outlet is one of its Women of the Year in 2024 (alongside other celebrity mothers such as Beyonce’s mum and Selena Gomez’s mum).
"It’s so much easier to just go to work, but raising children when they’re totally dependent on you and you’re trying to do the best you can with the limited resources that you have, it’s the most daunting task I’ve ever had to do."
Donna remains on good terms with her former husband Ed even after their divorce. "I don't hate him. We're friends to this day. We get along great," Donna said on New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, describing the duo as “like a tag team”.
In 2024, Donna forayed into acting, starring in two films: Christmas on Call and Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.
Jason Kelce - Brother
Jason and his younger brother Travis grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Both boys attended the University of Cincinnati, where they played football.
Jason first joined the Cincinnati team as a walk-on in 2006, before moving to centre in 2007. He helped the team win all games, 12-0, in the season, bagging them a spot in the Sugar Bowl (where they were defeated by the University of Florida, 51-24).
According to Jason and Travis’ mother, Donna, her sons were competitive with one another growing up.
"Everything was a competition,” she said on the Today show, “It was a competition to see who could get to the table first, who could get to the front seat of the car — this is just typical sibling rivalry. They egged each other on”.
Donna had spoken previously about her sons’ “sibling rivalry”. "There were a lot of fights," she told Sports Illustrated, "There were a lot of punches thrown. It all just stemmed from somebody being better than the other one, and the other one not being able to deal with it."
In 2011, Jason was chosen by the Philadelphia Eagles in the sixth round of the 2011 NFL draft. Like his brother, Jason went on to have a successful football career, named to the Pro Bowl seven times. In 2018, he helped the Eagles win Super Bowl LII, scoring a 41-33 victory.
In March 2024, however, Jason decided to retire from football, aged 36. During an emotional press conference, he described his numerous injuries, such as anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament tears in his right knee, that had been impacting his performance.
The Kelce brothers have co-hosted the New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce podcast since 2022, signing a distribution deal worth over $100 million (approximately £73,948) in 2024.
That year, Jason signed a three-year deal with ESPN, and in 2025, began hosting the weekly talk show They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce.
Jason is also the father of four daughters. The former NFL player and his wife, Kylie, welcomed their first daughter, Wyatt Elizabeth, to the world in 2019, followed by Eliotte Ray, 2021, Bennet Llewllyn, 2023, and Finley Anne, 2025.
Talking to People in 2023, Jason described being the father of girls as the "biggest highlight" of his life.
"Before I had children, I told myself if I ever have a daughter, I'm just going to treat them exactly the same as a son," he said. "I don't think that you should treat kids necessarily different."
He added: "And then when I had a daughter, I was like, 'I'm not going to spoil her, I'm going to raise her tough. She's going to be hard.' And the moment she came out, I was like, 'Yeah, that's not going to work.' "
