How Brittany Mahomes, Sophie Turner and Other Stars Earned a Spot on Taylor Swift's Squad
Meet the new new romantics.
If there's one thing that's never going to go out of style for Taylor Swift, it's assembling a squad of celeb friends whose combined star power could rival the guest list at the Oscars. While the superstar's inner circle is filled with longtime best friends like Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds and Selena Gomez, Swift has welcomed some new faces into the crew amid her romance with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce. (Hi, Mama and Papa Kelce!) It's nice to have a friend...to attend football games with you, which is exactly what the "Bad Blood" singer has been doing with Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Chiefs quarterback and Kelce's BFF Patrick Mahomes.
But the pair have also taken their burgeoning friendship off the field, with Brittany joining a girls' night out that included Sophie Turner, who has grown even closer with the Grammy winner since her split from Joe Jonas—yes, Swift's ex-boyfriend—last month.
And she's not the only recently single celeb to hang with Swift as Hugh Jackman joined in on the football fun when the squad enjoyed a headline-making hang at the Chiefs' Oct. 1 game at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium.
So, baby, let the games begin as we do a scouting report on the roster for Swift's 2023 squad:
They're cheer captains and they're on the bleachers.
Now that Taylor Swift is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, she has welcomed another WAG into her crew.
Since beginning her romance with Kelce, Swift has become friends with Brittany Mahomes, the wife of the team's quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.
Not only have the duo been spotted cheering on the team at several games, but but the Kansas City Current co-owner joined Swift and several of her celeb friends, including Blake Lively and Sophie Turner, for a group dinner on Sept. 30 in New York City.
Well, it's clear Swift is House Turner.
Since Sophie Turner's split with Joe Jonas on Sept. 5, the Game of Thrones star has frequently been spotted with Swift, who dated The Jonas Brothers singer for several months in 2008.
The friends were first photographed together when they stepped out for dinner in NYC on Sept. 19, while Turner and Swift—who famously penned the song "Mr. Perfectly Fine" about her teenage breakup with Jonas—enjoyed another girls' night out several days later.
Turner was in attendance at the second NFL game Swift attended in support of Kelce, which came after she joined the "The 1" singer, Mahomes and Lively for a meal.
And, amid her divorce, Turner posted a photo of what appeared to be her wrist wearing a friendship bracelet spelling "Fearless," the name of Swift's 2008 album.
Yep, James, Inez and Betty's parents are still very much on Swift's team, the trio becoming close after the singer befriended the Gossip Girl alum in 2015.
In fact, she's so tight with the power couple that their children—including baby No. 4, whose name Swift has yet to reveal in a song—call her Aunt Taylor and have played integral roles in some of her hit songs.
Often by Swift's side on her NYC adventures, Lively became the Grammy winner's collaborator when she directed the music video for Swift's song "I Bet You Think About Me" in 2021.
"I finally got to work with the brilliant, brave, & wickedly funny @blakelively on her directorial debut," Swift raved on Instagram and Twitter at the time. "Join us as we raise a toast, and a little hell."
Following her breakup with Joe Alwyn in April 2023, Swift was spotted with the couple in a getaway car—literally—when they were photographed catching a ride together after having dinner at Manhattan hotspot Casa Cipriani.
Of course, Lively and Reynolds were seated right next to Swift during the squad's appearance at Metlife Stadium for the Chiefs' game on Oct. 1. And after the headline-making outing, Reynolds discreetly weighed in on the experience.
"It's a lot of fun," he told Extra during the Oct. 9 Bring Change to Mind Gala in NYC. "The NFL right now is reaching a kind of fever pitch that is usually only reserved for the Super Bowl, but here we are at the fourth or fifth game of the year and it's already happening."
One of the most surprising additions to Swift's new squad was Hugh Jackman, with the Greatest Showman star attended the Oct. 1. game between the Chiefs and the New York Jets, piling into a VIP suite that included his good friend Ryan Reynolds and his wife, two longtime members of Swift's inner circle.
Jackman's outing with Swift & Co. came just after the recent news that the Wolverine star and his wife Deborra-Lee Furness had separated after 27 years of marriage.
Look at them now! Close friends since 2008, Swift and Selena Gomez are still as tight as ever.
Shortly after they were spotted dancing together in the audience at the 2023 MTV VMAs, Gomez shared several selfies with her BFF in a Sept. 16 Instagram post.
"Thas my best frien -she a real bad," Gomez captioned the snaps, quoting Saweetie's 2021 song "Best Friend."
In the pics, taken by Swift, the two pop stars appear to be having dinner outdoors at an oceanfront restaurant. In one photo, the "Blank Space" singer is kissing Gomez on the cheek.
Over the summer, the pair celebrated the Fourth of July together with several other friends at the "Style" singer's Independence Day party. And in August, the Only Murders in the Building star attended one of the Eras tour shows with her sister Gracie Teefey.
Later that month, when Gomez released her new song "Single Soon," Swift expressed her support by sharing the music video on her Instagram Stories, writing, "When ur bestie is the bestest."
Swift has been friends with Antoni Porowski for quite some time, even recruiting the Queer Eye star and his cast members Karamo, Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France and Bobby Berk to make an appearance in her star-studded "You Need to Calm Down" music video in 2019. Later that year, Swift and Porowski attended a Madonna concert together, and he was one of the many celebs to sit in the stacked VIP suite at the Chiefs-Jets game on Oct. 1.
The ultimate GNO FOMO!
Swift enjoyed a star-studded outing on Sept. 19 in NYC, stepping out for dinner with Big Little Lies stars Laura Dern and Zoë Kravitz, along with Barbie director Greta Gerwig.
The night out served as a reunion of sorts for all four parties—in addition to working alongside Kravitz in the HBO drama, Laura starred in Gerwig's 2019 adaptation of Little Women as well as Swift's music video for "Bejeweled" last year.
And Kravitz is one of the Grammy winner's longtime pals and recently served as a collaborator when she helped co-write "Lavender Haze" and "Karma" on Swift's recent Midnights album. The week prior to their outing with Dern and Gerwig, Swift and Kravitz stepped out for another dinner in the Big Apple, this time with Kravitz's boyfriend Channing Tatum, as well as Lively, Reynolds and Gigi Hadid, a longtime member of Swift's squad.
14 years after she covered "Picture to Burn" in her first ever YouTube video, Sabrina Carpenter was picked to perform as the opening act for Swift's Eras Tour shows in Mexico, calling it "a dream come true" for her.
"Watching her is a masterclass in itself," Carpenter gushed to Rolling Stone. "Obviously, she’s very good with words. So I feel a lot more comfortable that I’m going into a situation with someone that I admire so much and I’m just gonna, like, study."
Not only was Carpenter part of the celeb crew that attended the Jets game on Oct. 1, she's set to serve as Swift's opener at her concerts in Argentina and Brazil next month and will also support the "Cruel Summer" singer in Asia and Australia.
On Oct. 18, Carpenter covered "I Knew You Were Trouble" for Spotify Singles, which received Swift's approval on her Instagram Story, where she wrote, "Wow, she nailed it."