Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce get married in New York City | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:00Breaking news. The singer Taylor Swift
2. 0:02and the American football star Travis
3. 0:04Kelce are officially married. When news
4. 0:08came of the wedding, our reporter Floyd
5. 0:10Kush swiftly got himself to New York.
6. 0:13And we are able to go live to Floyd now
7. 0:16who is outside Madison Square Garden for
8. 0:18us. What has become a rather damp
9. 0:20Madison Square Garden just in the last
10. 0:22few minutes. Floyd, bring us up to
11. 0:25speed. What's been happening?
12. 0:29Hi Rich, how you going? We have a
13. 0:31torrential thunderstorm happening now
14. 0:33after intense heat, but we have some
15. 0:36breaking news that Taylor Swift and
16. 0:38Travis Kelce are in fact married. Uh
17. 0:43I'm going to have to leave you because
18. 0:44it is getting quite intense out here.
19. 0:46>> Oh dear, poor Floyd. Will we will let
20. 0:49Floyd get himself settled there. Um but
21. 0:52uh let me just tell you that when news
22. 0:54of uh the uh the wedding came through um
23. 0:59fans obviously uh celebrating around
24. 1:02Madison Square Garden. This is a massive
25. 1:04cultural event. Many people have called
26. 1:07it the uh wedding of the decade, maybe
27. 1:10even the wedding of the century. Let's
28. 1:13have a listen to what these fans had to
29. 1:15say.
30. 1:18>> They just got married. This is TNT,
31. 1:21Taylor and Travis. So, I think they did
32. 1:23get married.
33. 1:23>> What's your reaction?
34. 1:25>> Shocked, surprised, happy for them.
35. 1:28>> Yeah, surprised, excited. Um, we were
36. 1:32just watching the World Cup game and we
37. 1:34just popped over and we're just happy
38. 1:36that she got married and we're we didn't
39. 1:39think this was real. So, when we saw the
40. 1:40sign, we're like, "Wow, this is
41. 1:42shocking."
42. 1:43>> Uh, I only have two, but my favorite
43. 1:46album is 1999.
44. 1:50Well, quite the mix of fans there and
45. 1:52clearly those fans speaking to our
46. 1:54reporter before the weather took a turn
47. 1:56for the worse. It's now rather dismal in
48. 1:59New York City at Madison Square Garden
49. 2:02where that wedding has taken place just
50. 2:04in the last half hour. But this is a big
51. 2:06deal, a significant cultural moment.
52. 2:09Joining us live now is Dr. Sarah Baker
53. 2:11Bailey, an associate professor at
54. 2:13Southern Connecticut State University,
55. 2:14where she teaches a Taylor Swift themed
56. 2:17course. looking at the intersection of
57. 2:19pop culture, fandom, and communication.
58. 2:22Sarah, great to have you on the program.
59. 2:25This is very exciting news for many
60. 2:27Swifties, as they call themselves, but a
61. 2:30big cultural moment. Talk us through
62. 2:32this.
63. 2:34>> Oh, absolutely. The T voodoo is
64. 2:37unmatched. I can't believe that it's a
65. 2:38thunderstorm in New York right now. She
66. 2:41wrote on her album, Reputation, after
67. 2:43the storm, something was born on the 4th
68. 2:45of July. Here we are, July 3rd, 2026.
69. 2:50Prophecies coming true.
70. 2:53People have been asking me why why am I
71. 2:56doing news right now talking about the
72. 2:58TNT wedding? And I think these are two
73. 3:01uniquely American cultural phenomenons
74. 3:04coming together. Pop, music, sports, but
75. 3:06also it's a wedding of a thousand people
76. 3:09featuring film, television stars, guests
77. 3:12from across the pond like Hugh Grant,
78. 3:14athletes, journalists, models. It is a
79. 3:17who's who of America all under that dome
80. 3:21of Madison Square Garden right now.
81. 3:23>> Uh really quite prophetic that that line
82. 3:25you bring up. You touched on there some
83. 3:27of the guest lists. um that the names on
84. 3:30that guest list, but this whole thing
85. 3:32was shrouded in secrecy. I mean, you're
86. 3:35talking about one of the most famous
87. 3:38singers on the planet planet and one of
88. 3:40the most famous sports stars on the
89. 3:43planet. Why were they so secretive about
90. 3:45this and yet on the other hand doing
91. 3:47this in such a huge public venue?
92. 3:50>> That's a great question. Uh, the Tavis
93. 3:54interactions over the last two years of
94. 3:56their relationship has been this very
95. 3:59interesting mix of seeming incredibly
96. 4:03intimate. Uh, announcing your engagement
97. 4:05on Instagram with a caption that says,
98. 4:07"Your favorite English teacher and gym
99. 4:10teacher are getting married." Feels like
100. 4:12something a best friend, an acquaintance
101. 4:14would do. uh paparazzi walks, things of
102. 4:17that nature, but always still keeping us
103. 4:20at arms length with it. Right.
104. 4:23Rightfully so. Um so bringing us in, but
105. 4:27also keeping things I think Travis said
106. 4:29it once in an interview that there are
107. 4:31many details of their relationship that
108. 4:34will remain intimate and private and
109. 4:36between one another, but they're
110. 4:38certainly not going to hide their love
111. 4:40for each other. You study from an
112. 4:43academic point of view pop culture,
113. 4:46fandom, celebrity status. What is it
114. 4:49about Taylor Swift and also her now
115. 4:52husband Travis Kelce that just captures
116. 4:57so many people's imagination and
117. 5:00emotion?
118. 5:02Both Taylor and Travis beautifully
119. 5:05leverage the power of social media,
120. 5:08especially emerging social media
121. 5:10technologies. Taylor at the start of her
122. 5:14career was doing a lot of vlogging. So
123. 5:16that initially really let fans in on her
124. 5:20day-to-day life. There's a really
125. 5:21infamous video of her learning to drive
126. 5:24and it's not going very well. They would
127. 5:27give us she would give us snippets of
128. 5:29things that we would all be experiencing
129. 5:32or had experienced. She got on Tumblr
130. 5:35when it took off and was very active on
131. 5:38it. Instagram al obviously they have
132. 5:40been currently leveraging. But Travis is
133. 5:42no stranger to interactions on social
134. 5:44media as uh some of his old tweets have
135. 5:47have resurfaced in some really funny
136. 5:50ways. They they know how to through
137. 5:53screens and through digital media reach
138. 5:56out to their fans and cultivate feelings
139. 5:59of very deep intimate personal
140. 6:01connections.
141. 6:02>> Really really fascinating to talk to you
142. 6:04Dr. Sarah Baker Bailey on this huge
143. 6:07pivotal cultural moment uh for many
144. 6:10people who are swifties out there. Uh
145. 6:13Dr. Bailey from Southern Connecticut
146. 6:14State University. Thank you so much for
147. 6:16joining us. Really appreciate Thank you.