Last month, the media was excited by the prospect of a new and unexpected celebrity couple. If you’ve been watching the news, reading through X, or scrolling through TikTok, you have no doubt seen the footage of Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce gazing upwards in adoration at the Arrowhead stadium VIP box while Grammy award winning singer and American sweetheart Taylor Swift smiles proudly back at him. The news of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s potential relationship has been circulating for some time, but the rumors intensified on September 23, when Taylor Swift was seen sitting next to Travis Kelce’s mother during the recent Chiefs game, and was photographed leaving Arrowhead with him afterwards. The internet was immediately surging with feelings of elation and anger, with some expressing their support for their new favorite football player and some expressing their distaste for the pairing. This situation has not only raised support and opposition for the couple but has also raised an interesting question: why are people so invested in celebrity relationships, and is that a good thing?
It seems that we have always been interested in the romantic lives of celebrities – from Priscilla and Elvis to Sonny and Cher and Brad and Angelina, people can’t seem to get enough of them. Most people enjoy gossip, and for some this enjoyment has spread, causing them to fixate on celebrities. Because we are exposed to a lot of information about celebrities, we begin to feel as if we know them personally, and this can lead to a deep interest in their personal life. James Houran, a clinical psychologist, stated, “In essence, people seem to confuse having a lot of information about a celebrity with genuine intimacy.” Although there is nothing wrong with knowing information about one’s favorite celebrity, there comes a point when one’s interest can become unhealthy.
Having an unhealthy investment in a celebrity’s personal life is a negative example of a parasocial relationship, which is defined as “a relationship that a person imagines having with another person whom they do not actually know, such as a celebrity or a fictional character.” For as long as the concept of a celebrity has existed, there have been people with unhealthy attachments to them. However, it is now easier for one to develop a parasocial relationship due to the rise of social media. We have extensive access to celebrities’ personal lives, through celebrities’ personal social media accounts, and through fans and paparazzi sharing photos and videos online. Because of this, people can become far too invested in the romantic relationships of celebrities and falsely believe that they are entitled to information about them. For example, it was recently revealed that singer Joe Jonas had filed for divorce against his wife, actress Sophie Turner. Immediately, fans of both demanded more information and were unsatisfied with not knowing every detail. Because people have known of Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas since they were just starting out in their industries as teenagers, people believe that they are entitled to personal information about a very personal matter. But, regardless of how many Jonas Brothers concerts you have been to, or how many times you have binge-watched Game of Thrones, Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas’ relationship is private and no one is entitled to any information that they are not comfortable sharing.
Some people don’t just want information about a celebrity’s relationship but think they deserve the power to make decisions about said relationship. After Taylor Swift and her longtime boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn, broke up, there were rumors that she and controversial The 1975 frontman Matty Healy were dating, prompting a group of her fans to write an open letter asking her to break up with him. A situation similar to this occurred in March of this year when the paparazzi captured photos of singer Phoebe Bridgers in the airport with comedian Bo Burnham. Despite the photos containing nothing to confirm a romantic relationship, some fans of Phoebe Bridgers were outraged at her assumed choice of a partner and took it so far as to demand that she break up with him or they would not support her any longer. Sadly, this occurred only days after Phoebe Bridgers revealed that her father had passed away and eventually it was revealed that she had been on the way to her father’s funeral when the pictures were taken. In an interview with Them Magazine, Bridgers expressed anger towards the fans who had harassed her after the pictures surfaced online. She said, “People with my picture as their Twitter picture, who claim to like my music, bullied me at the airport on the way to my father's funeral this year…I hate you, and I hope you grow … up.” Clearly, this kind of behavior is not only unhealthy for the people who are intruding on the relationships but is also damaging for the celebrities who have to endure the invasion of privacy and abusive behavior of their “fans.”
As consumers of media, it is important to be responsible in how we react to information that we receive, especially when it comes to relationships between celebrities. Although there is nothing wrong with being interested in celebrities, we should remember that they are constantly subject to scrutiny and invasions of privacy, and we should endeavor to maintain a respectful and non-intrusive distance from their personal lives. With all that said, this author wishes Travis and Taylor the best in their relationship and hopes they will have a wonderful “Love Story.”
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.