A Look Back At Travis Kelce's Whirlwind Romance With Maya Benberry
Travis Kelce subtly confirmed he's a Swiftie while gushing over Taylor Swift after she attended the Chiefs game and drove off with him post-game on September 24, 2023. However, one of Kelce's former flames spoke out against him, giving Swift an ominous warning about the NFL player.
"Taylor seems like such a fun girl with a beautiful spirit so I wish her the best of luck but I wouldn't be a girls' girl if I didn't advise her to be smart!" Maya Benberry told the Daily Mail. "I'm sure by now she has mastered the ability to see who is really there for her — and who is just using her." She also said, "Only time will tell but like the saying always goes, once a cheater, always a cheater."
This shade comes to light about seven years after Benberry and Kelce's romance was featured on the small screen on E!'s "Catching Kelce" reality dating show. On "The Bachelor"-style series, 50 women (one from each state in the U.S.) were fighting over Kelce. Benberry was representing Kentucky on the show, and she won, but her relationship with Kelce post-show was short-lived.
Benberry did a Q&A to talk about the show
On "Catching Kelce," the football star admitted that he felt Maya Benberry's attitude bordered on arrogant, but Travis Kelce still chose her as the winner: "Even though my mind's telling me one thing, I got to go with my heart," he explained (via The Sun). In a YouTube video from 2016, Benberry did a Q&A about "Catching Kelce," and she described how she felt her relationship with Kelce was solid during the filming of the show and figured they had something good, because the other contestants saw her as competition.
"It was great to have a boyfriend, someone that I really was into, someone that my parents liked, and things like that," Benberry said. She went on to describe how her favorite date with Kelce was when he met her parents and then the couple went to eat seafood and go see a scary movie. They pretended not to be themselves and used pseudonyms at the restaurant, presumably due to his level of fame (and to not spoil the show before it was released).
Unfortunately, Benberry received a lot of hate online afterward. "Catching Kelce" edited her to look nasty, ignoring her bond with Kelce and her friendships with other contestants. "It sucks that I didn't get to really enjoy my relationship because of so much hate and backlash, and people judging me and going to T about it ... but it is what it is," Benberry said.
Benberry first accused Kelce of cheating in 2017
At the time of her YouTube video tell-all, Maya Benberry reiterated a previous announcement and said she and Travis Kelce broke up, but they were still friends. According to Hollywood Life, "Catching Kelce" filmed its final episode in April 2016. It aired in November 2016, and Benberry confirmed she and Kelce were still dating in an interview with a different outlet at the time. The video where Benberry talked about their breakup was posted in December 2016.
When TMZ announced in May 2017 that Kelce had been in a relationship with Kayla Nicole for six months, Benberry tweeted, "When you and your ex broke up 5 months ago but you find out via social media that he has supposedly been in another relationship for 6 ... " (via Instagram). The series of posts she made on X (formerly Twitter) about the situation were eventually deleted.
There seems to be no confirmation on whether or not Kelce cheated on Benberry, but after her warning to Taylor Swift about Kelce's infidelity, his people denied it. An insider who knows Kelce told TMZ that he and Benberry dated for just one month post-"Catching Kelce," seeming to contradict other sources and what Benberry has said. Regardless of what happened in the past, Kelce and Swift seem to be in their own lavender haze.