William Says He Tried to Move Kelce Out of the Swift Selfie

Prince William has admitted he tried to move Travis Kelce out of the most famous selfie of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, the backstage Wembley photo that became the first picture Swift ever posted of herself with Kelce.

William made the admission during a surprise appearance on The Graham Norton Show, in an episode recorded with Earthshot Prize supporters Cate Blanchett, Hannah Waddingham and Robert Irwin, according to InStyle. Norton showed him the selfie and asked if he had understood at the time how much attention the post would get.

What he said

"I wasn't until recently," William said, according to Hello Magazine. "I hadn't appreciated the significance, and actually, I was trying to move him out of the photo."

He went on: "Travis kept coming back in, and I couldn't work out why he kept coming back in. I was trying to move him out so it was just me and Taylor and the children."

The audience laughed, Hello reported. William had not grasped that Swift posting the picture made it the couple's first public photo together, the moment fans read as the relationship going photo official, as Particle News put it.

The night at Wembley

The selfie was taken in June 2024, before the first night of Swift's eight-night Eras Tour run at Wembley Stadium in London. William attended with his two eldest children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, and the night out fell on his 42nd birthday, Hello reported.

Swift posted the selfie on Instagram, and it spread worldwide within hours. Kensington Palace also shared a group photo from the meeting, one that did not include Kelce, The Royal Observer noted.

It was not William's first meeting with Swift. The two first met in 2013, when Swift attended a Kensington Palace gala for the Centrepoint charity. William was called on stage with Swift and Jon Bon Jovi to sing Livin' on a Prayer. "To this day, I still do not know what came over me," he later said of that moment, according to Hello. "Honestly, even now I'm cringing at what happened next."

No hard feelings

Nothing in the reporting suggests any friction. Kelce later spoke about meeting William on the New Heights podcast he hosts with his brother Jason, and called the prince "the coolest," according to Particle News. William then appeared on that podcast himself in July 2026.

So the photo that nearly lost its third adult turned into a running joke between a future king and an NFL tight end, and the version Swift posted, with Kelce in it, is the one the world remembers.