And We’ll Never Be Royals – Swift, Kelce, and the Inevitability of Worship
For the past two years, America has been collectively obsessed with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Every date night, every game appearance, every whispered lyric in one of her songs that might reference him sends the internet into a frenzy. It’s not just a love story—it’s a national event. Why? Because when a society lacks a traditional monarchy, it creates one.
C.S. Lewis put it best:
“Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.”
What Lewis understood is that humans have an innate need to worship. We need figures who feel larger than life, who embody aspiration and transcendence. In the absence of an actual royal family, Americans have long elevated celebrities to fulfill that role. And when two high-profile figures come together, the effect multiplies. The Swift-Kelce relationship isn’t just about romance; it’s about spectacle, influence, and the way our culture crowns its modern-day monarchs.
America’s Long Tradition of Crowning Celebrity Royalty
What we’re seeing with Swift and Kelce isn’t new. The American public has been enthralled by larger-than-life romances for nearly a century.
Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe – The all-American slugger and the world’s most famous movie star. Their marriage was brief, but the idea of them together was irresistible. Monroe, already treated like a queen of Hollywood, found in DiMaggio a partner who represented old-school American values. Their relationship had all the elements of a royal saga—passion, scandal, tragedy, and enduring legend.
John and Jackie Kennedy – Unlike our modern celebrity couples, the Kennedys actually were political royalty. Yet, their White House was so infused with glamour, style, and myth-making that it became known as Camelot, a direct reference to the legendary court of King Arthur. America has never stopped chasing the dream of Camelot—an era where power, beauty, and charisma combine into something larger than life.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie – Dubbed Brangelina, they were the ultimate power couple of the 2000s. Their relationship fueled a decade of headlines, from their international adoptions to their collaborative films and humanitarian work. When they split, it was treated like the fall of a dynasty.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes – The infamous TomKat saga played out like a royal drama in its own right, complete with secretive courtship, a public wedding in a literal castle, and an eventual, high-profile dissolution.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle – Here, we had actual royalty—except America took ownership of their love story. Meghan, an American actress, became a duchess, and her love story with Harry turned into a tale of defying the establishment. Their departure from the royal family only cemented their place as pop culture royalty in the U.S.
Every generation finds its own couple to anoint, and today, Swift and Kelce wear the crown.
The Taylor & Travis Coronation: Why This Feels Different
Unlike some past celebrity couples, Swift and Kelce aren’t just playing the parts of a power duo—they’re actively shaping their own narrative.
Kelce as the Warrior Prince – Travis Kelce isn’t just an NFL player; he’s one of the greatest tight ends in history. With multiple Super Bowl rings and a certain future spot in the Hall of Fame, he represents physical dominance, charisma, and leadership. He’s the modern equivalent of a warrior prince, celebrated for his conquests on the field.
Swift as the Queen of Hearts – Taylor Swift is one of the most powerful cultural forces in the world. She’s not just a musician; she’s a movement. Her ability to drive trends, shift economies, and mobilize fans resembles the influence monarchs once wielded over their subjects. When she started attending Chiefs games, the NFL saw a surge in female viewership, merchandise sales, and overall engagement. That’s power. Her televised appearances in the luxury box, nearly indistinguishable from a royal balcony wave.
The Taylor Swift Effect is so pronounced that the NFL leaned into it, openly marketing her presence at games, posting about her on official channels, and embracing the cultural crossover. This isn’t just celebrity buzz—this is the kind of cultural gravity once reserved for coronations and royal weddings.
Leadership and the Power of Myth-making
If the Swift-Kelce phenomenon has shown us anything, it’s that powerful leadership isn’t just about ability—it’s about the story people tell about you. The most effective leaders don’t just guide organizations; they shape narratives. They become larger than life, embodying values, aspirations, and a sense of collective destiny.
History is full of leaders who understood this deeply. John F. Kennedy wasn’t just a president; he was the center of Camelot, a mythical American golden age. Steve Jobs wasn’t just a CEO; he was a prophet of innovation, the master storyteller of a technological revolution. Elon Musk is not merely an entrepreneur; he is, to his followers, the architect of the future.
This pattern—this tendency to transform powerful figures into royalty—isn’t just something that happens to celebrities. It happens in leadership, too. And when leaders learn to harness it, the results can be extraordinary.
They inspire deep loyalty. People rally behind those who feel like more than just administrators or executives—they follow leaders who embody a mission, a sense of purpose.
They unify and galvanize. When leaders successfully craft a mythos around their vision, they create movements, not just organizations.
They shape culture and outlast their tenure. The most effective leaders establish legacies that persist even after they are gone. Their ideas, their ethos, their mythology continue to shape institutions.
But this is a power that must be wielded carefully. The same energy that fuels devotion can also spiral into something much darker. The higher a leader is elevated, the more scrutiny they will face. The more influential their mythos becomes, the more people will begin to doubt, question, and—eventually—construct their own counter-narratives. And that is when the shadows begin to gather.
The Final Stage: When Royals Conspire
There is one final stage in the process of turning public figures into royalty. It happens when their power—both economic and cultural—has been cemented. When they have demonstrated their dominance, their victories, their ability to shape entire industries. The final step is the emergence of conspiracy theories. And so, it was inevitable that Swift and Kelce—now an institution in their own right—would become the center of bizarre and baseless political conspiracy theories.
As Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs advanced toward the Super Bowl, false claims began swirling that the entire season had been rigged in their favor as part of a larger, hidden agenda. Some claimed Swift was working as a covert Pentagon operative. Others alleged that the relationship was manufactured to help sway the 2024 presidential election.
These types of claims are nothing new. They often accompany figures who have reached a level of public dominance that makes them feel untouchable—so people begin to invent ways to bring them down. It’s the shadow side of power, the inevitable backlash that happens when a culture has built someone up too high.
The same thing happened to John and Jackie Kennedy. Camelot didn’t just fade—it was assassinated. And in its wake, the Kennedy name became synonymous with conspiracy theories, from hidden government plots to dynastic curses. The same thing happened with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, whose every move is now scrutinized through the lens of political intrigue and secret agendas. And now, the same thing is happening to Swift and Kelce. Because once a culture has made someone its royalty, it also starts looking for ways to dethrone them.
We’ll Never Stop Doing This
The obsession with Swift and Kelce is just the latest iteration of a much older tradition. It’s what happens when a society looks for figures to embody its ideals, its fantasies, its aspirations, and yes, also it's fears.
We want love stories that feel legendary.
We want figures who seem untouchable, yet human.
We want rituals of pageantry, moments of spectacle, figures to root for and against.
And, above all, we want Camelot. We want a golden age, a storybook love, a court filled with heroes and queens.
Swift and Kelce might not last forever. Most of our “royal” couples don’t. But even when they’re gone, we’ll find another. We always do. Because even in a democracy, we never stopped being human, and humans will always look up, searching for someone to worship.
Even if, one day, we turn on them.