Prince William has revealed that he repeatedly tried to move Travis Kelce out of a backstage photograph with Taylor Swift and his children, unaware that the resulting image would become a milestone in the singer's public relationship with the NFL player.
Speaking on the October 23 episode of The Graham Norton Show, the Prince of Wales recalled the encounter at Wembley Stadium in June 2024, when he took Prince George and Princess Charlotte to Swift's Eras Tour.
"I hadn't appreciated the significance," William said. "Actually, I was trying to move him out of the photo, and he just kept coming back in."
William said he had a simpler family photograph in mind. "I kept trying to move him out, so it was just me, Taylor and the children."
The selfie ultimately included all five of them and became the first photograph Swift publicly shared featuring herself and Kelce together. William presented the moment as a misunderstanding, joking about his efforts to arrange the group before realizing why Kelce's presence mattered.
The backstage meeting took place on the opening night of Swift's eight-show Wembley run. George and Charlotte accompanied their father, while their younger brother, Prince Louis, did not appear in the photograph.
William's subsequent contact with Kelce extended beyond the concert. He made a surprise appearance on New Heights, the podcast Kelce hosts with his brother Jason, in an episode promoted in July.
After Jason delivered an elaborate introduction listing William's royal titles and sporting affiliations, the prince responded: "That is quite an intro, guys." He added: "Amazing."
The Graham Norton appearance was a special Earthshot Prize edition featuring Cate Blanchett, Robert Irwin and Hannah Waddingham. Alongside the concert story, William discussed television habits at home and some of his childhood ambitions.
The BBC competition series The Traitors, he said, has become a particular favorite of Charlotte and Louis.
"I love it, the family love it. Charlotte and Louis are obsessed with it. It's really good telly," William said.
He recalled seeing actor Ross Kemp the day after the first episode of Celebrity Traitors aired and attempting to test the contestant's composure.
"I saw Ross Kemp the day after the first episode and I couldn't help but try, in the most appropriate way, to touch him to see what reaction I got from him," William said. "Turns out he was actually very jumpy."
William also tried to persuade Kemp to disclose who had won, without success.
Another anecdote concerned a visit to Somerset, where a man approached William to ask when he would perform. The question initially puzzled him before it became apparent that the visitor had confused his royal title with the late American musician Prince.
"It turned out he wanted me to sing Purple Rain, which I don't know the lyrics for," William said.
His own musical ambitions had taken a different form. After initially wanting to become a police officer, William said he developed an interest in DJing.
"Then I went through a phase where I wanted to be a DJ, which didn't go very well," he recalled. "I was called DJ Xara with an X. It wasn't good."
