Donna Kelce has a front-row seat to son Travis Kelce’s love story with Taylor Swift — and she might be sharing what she’s learned in Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.
Donna played a namesake character in the Hallmark movie, which premiered on Saturday, November 30, as a waitress at a local Independence, Missouri, barbecue joint since the Show-Me State is renowned for its BBQ.
Holiday Touchdown, part of Hallmark’s newfound partnership with the Kansas City Chiefs, charts the romance between devoted team fan Alana (Hunter King) and Chiefs staffer Derrick (Tyler Hynes). As the pair slowly fall in love over Christmastime, her mom and grandmother try to speed up the matchmaking process.
“Don’t force it, ladies,” Donna replies. “Just let it happen. Trust me on this one.”
Fans on social media felt it was a subtle reference to how Travis, 35, and Swift, 34, got together last year.
In what could have been its own movie, the 14-time Grammy winner was long regarded as one of Travis’ celebrity crushes. By July 2023, he went to see her Eras Tour when she stopped in Kansas City. (Travis, of course, lives in KC and plays for the Chiefs as a tight end.)
Travis went on to rave about the “electric” concert on his and brother Jason Kelce’s “New Heights” podcast, adding that he felt “butthurt” that he couldn’t meet Swift backstage.
“This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell,” Swift recalled to TIME in a December 2023 profile. “We started hanging out right after that. 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.”
The pair publicly debuted their relationship in September 2023 when she went to one of Travis’ home Chiefs games. She sat in a private box with Donna.
“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,” Swift added to the outlet. “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.”
Travis feels the same, often stepping out at Swift’s Eras Tour shows. In May, he even gushed to Us Weekly exclusively that the performances were “unbelievable.”
Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story is available to stream on Peacock and Hallmark+.