Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce donate $26m to charities ahead of wedding

By Pierra Willix, Press Association Senior Entertainment Reporter

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have donated $26 million to 20 charities ahead of their wedding.

A representative for the pop star confirmed the couple – who are set to get married at Madison Square Garden on Friday night – had made the significant donation.

The 20 charities include nine food banks, an animal cruelty organisation, seven educational programmes, and three children’s hospitals.

The announcement simply shared: “This week, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift donated 26 million dollars to charities across the United States. They include the following…”

The charities included City Harvest, Food Bank For NYC, New York Cares, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, Harvesters – The Community Food Network, The Store, Helping Harvest, Rhode Island Community Food Bank, Feeding America and ASPCA.

The others recipients included Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Grammy In The Schools, Education Through Music, Answer The Call, Musical Mentors, and After-School All- Stars in New York and Cleveland.

Also receiving donations were MSK Kids, the paediatric cancer programme at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone and Children’s Mercy Hospital.

Although the size of the individual donations was not noted, City Harvest in New York issued a release that said it had received a “generous one million dollars donation” from the couple.

The Rhode Island Community Food Bank also said it was “incredibly grateful for their extraordinarily generous and unexpected gift”.

The news of the donations comes as presenter Graham Norton and actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge were spotted arriving in New York City.

Norton was photographed with his husband Jono McLeod at JFK Airport, wearing a blue shirt and shorts, while Waller-Bridge sported a black hoodie.

It comes after Norton appeared in the video for Swift’s song Opalite earlier this year, along with guests such as actor Cillian Murphy, singer Lewis Capaldi and About Time star Domhnall Gleeson – who appeared on The Graham Norton Show with Swift.

Norton has regularly been asked whether he has been invited to the wedding since, insisting to his friend Maria McErlane that he did not know whether he was invited during a talk at Advertising Week Europe, despite Swift openly inviting him on his show.

Waller-Bridge was among the crowd at the Eras Tour in London in 2024, and hosted US sketch show Saturday Night Live in 2019 when Swift was the musical guest, the Fleabag star has also reportedly been invited to a number of the singer’s parties.

Workers have been seen lifting large props into the venue including a grand piano, tree branches and a large carpet, which was unveiled outside one entrance and quickly removed, while “no parking” signs have been placed around the arena.

A fleet of forklift trucks and lorries have been seen loading equipment into the venue this week, with a box with “40 mirrorball” written on it pictured in the back of a lorry.

Food has also been seen being delivered to Madison Square Garden, however some items have been completely covered, including one marked “garden party”, with even delivery staff reportedly unaware of what they are carrying.

A forklift truck operator has also been spotted wearing a Swift T-shirt while working at the venue.

It comes after an unnamed law enforcement official briefed on the security plans confirmed the wedding plans to Associated Press (AP), saying they had been warned about an influx of Swift’s fans, who are named Swifties.

The city’s local government has offered few details about plans for the wedding, including in relation to its impact on local businesses and transport, with the venue located above Penn Station.

At a press conference on Wednesday, mayor Zohran Mamdani said in response to a question about the wedding: “We are fully prepared, there isn’t anything to share beyond that.”

New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch also spoke about the event on Wednesday, saying: “I would be remiss not to mention an event that we are tracking at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.

“The NYPD will, of course, have a detail in place, but I am not going to go into more specifics on that at this time.”

Swift made headlines in August after announcing her engagement to the Kansas City Chiefs player in a joint Instagram post, which read: “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”