As Taylor Swift and NFL star Travis Kelce’s romance continues to be in the spotlight, fans have speculated whether their relationship is legitimate. 

Kansas City Chiefs president Mark Donovan set the record straight on whether Swift and Kelce’s romance is only a marketing ploy to benefit the football team. 

“I’d love to say that it was a marketing strategy, but it is an authentic relationship,” Donovan shared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “And we’re happy to have it, and it’s been nothing but good for us.”

TAYLOR SWIFT, TRAVIS KELCE’S ROMANCE UNDER MICROSCOPE AFTER SINGER SKIPPED LAST TWO GAMES

His comments come after the Chiefs’ president was asked whether he could have predicted the attention placed on the team after Swift and Kelce started dating. 

“I think the best thing I can say about the whole relationship and the impact it’s had on us is, Taylor Swift is an authentic member of the Kansas City Chiefs kingdom,” Donovan added.

“I’d love to say that it was a marketing strategy, but it is an authentic relationship.”

— Kansas City Chiefs President Mark Donovan

“She’s an authentic fan… that matters to our fans and our fan base… it matters to us, and we try to respect that.”

Taylor Swift shows off her team spirit at a Kansas City Chiefs game. (David Eulitt/Getty Images)

It is no question that Swift has impacted the NFL, helping the professional football organization and the Kansas City Chiefs attain millions of dollars in revenue, according to a marketing expert.

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According to Eric Smallwood, president of Apex Marketing Group, Swift generated $331.5 million in equivalent brand value, or EBV, for Travis Kelce’s football team and the NFL in the months after their relationship went public.

Apex Marketing Group, which started tracking Swift’s impact on the NFL, noted the starting value was $166 million in October 2023.

Swift gave a thumbs up while sitting in the luxury suite with Kelce’s mom, Donna. (Jason Hanna via Getty Images)

TAYLOR SWIFT’S MAN TRAVIS KELCE ISN’T BOTHERED BY BEING CALLED ARM CANDY: ‘COMES WITH THE TERRITORY’

The number included every time the media – including print, digital, radio, TV, highlights and social media – mentioned the iconic pop star. Smallwood told FOX Business earlier this year that online media and social media gained the most from Swift’s attendance at Chiefs games.

Last month, Swift and Kelce’s romance was under the microscope after the mega pop star skipped two games. 

The couple has been battling split rumors since an alleged breakup contract went viral in early September. Kelce’s team shut down the alleged contract as “false and fabricated,” but the rumor mill went into overdrive.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce went public with their relationship last fall. (Getty Images)

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Fans speculating about “trouble” in Swift’s relationship with Kelce over a few missed games are “reaching,” according to celebrity matchmaker Alessandra Conti.

“Although the two have been accused of their romance being a PR stunt, I’ve been a Celebrity Matchmaker in Beverly Hills for 12 years, and if there’s one thing I can spot, it’s a fake,” Conti told Fox News Digital.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, attend the U.S. Open in New York City on Sept. 8, 2024. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)

“Taylor and Travis have a very real connection; from their body language to the lengths that they have both taken to support each other throughout the last year, to involving their families and friends, and truly integrating their lives, this is as real as a couple that Hollywood has seen,” she added.

Kelce and Swift debuted their relationship last year when the “Bejeweled” singer attended one of the NFL star’s football games.

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Fox News Digital’s Lauryn Overhultz and Janelle Ash contributed to this report.

Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines blasted the co-hosts of “The View” on Wednesday, calling them “deranged” and “out of touch” after they spoke out in defense of Delaware Rep.-elect Sarah McBride over a resolution that would ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol.

Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer who has publicly spoken out against trans inclusion in women’s and girls sports and advocated for protecting women’s spaces, posted a message on X calling out the group for speaking out on an issue that does not directly impact them.

“I wonder if the deranged, out-of-touch women on The View would be comfortable letting Mr. McBride change in a locker room inches away from their own daughters,” she wrote in a post on X which accompanied a clip of the show. 

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“It never matters until it affects you personally.” 

Gaines competed against former UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete, at the NCAA championships in 2022, where she said the NCAA had opted to give Thomas the fifth-place trophy for the “photo op” despite them tying in the women’s 200 freestyle.  

Thomas would go on to win a national title in the women’s 500 freestyle. 

Gaines was responding to a segment of Tuesday’s episode of “The View” where the co-hosts reacted to a resolution by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., to ban transgender women from using women’s restrooms at the U.S. Capitol in response to McBride, the first openly transgender federal lawmaker set to join Congress in January.

RILEY GAINES REPEATEDLY TEARS INTO AOC FOR TAKING PRONOUNS OUT OF X BIO AFTER ADVOCATING FOR TRANS ATHLETES

“I don’t understand how this is [Mace’s] welcome to someone who is coming to make a difference in the country,” Whoopi Goldberg said.  

Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del., poses for a photograph after joining other congressional freshmen of the 119th Congress for a group photograph on the steps of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol Building on Nov. 15, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“It’s not a welcome, it’s flipping her the middle finger. Because she is the one person in the House that this will affect,” Sara Haines responded, adding, “And this woman that came and sat at our table is one of the most decent, amazing politicians I’ve ever seen. Her messaging resounded across the boards.”

Alyssa Farah Griffin chimed in, calling the attempt to ban McBride “gross.”

“It is a new member of Congress, who ran as a centrist democrat, talked about issues – pocketbook issues. She said at our table ‘I am not a spokesperson for my community. I’m running to deliver for Delaware.’ And Nancy Mace is trying to goad her into a fight she did not sign up to be part of. She’s trying to pigeonhole her into ‘You have to be this culture warrior, who makes this your whole identity’ purely because Nancy Mace doesn’t like how she chooses to exist.” 

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U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) arrives for a House Republican caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol on November 19, 2024, in Washington, DC. Mace introduced legislation that would require House members and staffers from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”  (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Gaines said in a separate post on X Wednesday that she would be “happy” to join “The View” for a conversation after disagreeing with Goldberg’s numbers regarding trans athletes competing in public schools. 

Fox News’ Liz Elkind contributed to this report. 

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

• Percival Everett won the National Book Award for fiction with “James,” a retelling of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” told from Jim’s perspective.
• Jason De León’s “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling” won in the nonfiction category.
• Winners were chosen by panels of writers, critics and booksellers from over 1,900 nominated books.

Percival Everett’s “James,” a daring reworking of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” has won the National Book Award for fiction. Jason De León’s “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling” won for nonfiction, where finalists included Salman Rushdie’s memoir about his brutal stabbing in 2022, “Knife.”

The prize for young people’s literature was given Wednesday night to Shifa Saltagi Safadi’s coming of age story “Kareem Between,” and the poetry award went to Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s “Something About Living.” In the translation category, the winner was Yáng Shuāng-zǐ’s “Taiwan Travelogue,” translated from the Mandarin Chinese by Lin King.

Judging panels, made up of writers, critics, booksellers and others in the literary community, made their selections from hundreds of submissions, with publishers nominating more than 1,900 books in all. Each of the winners in the five competitive categories received $10,000.

JUDY BLUME, AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION WIN NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS

Everett’s win continues his remarkable rise in the past few years. Little known to general readers for decades, the 67-year-old has been a Booker Prize and Pulitzer Prize finalist for such novels as “Trees” and “Dr. No” and has seen the novel “Erasure” adapted into the Oscar-nominated “American Fiction.”

In taking on Mark Twain’s classic about the wayward Southern boy Huck and the enslaved Jim, Everett tells the story from the latter’s perspective and emphasizes how differently Jim behaves and even speaks when whites are not around. The novel was a Booker finalist and last month won the Kirkus Prize for fiction.

“James” has been nicely received,” Everett noted during his acceptance speech.

“Demon Copperhead” novelist Barbara Kingsolver and Black Classic Press publisher W. Paul Coates received lifetime achievement medals from the National Book Foundation, which presents the awards.

Speakers praised diversity, disruption and autonomy, whether Taiwanese independence or the rights of immigrants in the U.S. Two winners, Safadi and Tuffaha, condemned the year-old Gaza war and U.S. military support for Israel. Neither mentioned Israel by name, but both called the conflict “genocide” and were met with cheers — and more subdued responses — after calling for support of the Palestinians.

Tuffaha, who is Palestinian American, dedicated her award in part to “to all the deeply beautiful Palestinians that this world has lost and all those miraculous ones who endured, waiting for us, waiting for us to wake up.”

Author Percival Everett attends the 75th National Book Awards ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in New York. (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

Last year publisher Zibby Owens withdrew support for the awards after hearing that finalists were planning to condemn the Gaza war. This year the World Jewish Congress was among those criticizing Coates’ award, citing in part his reissue of the essay “The Jewish Onslaught,” which has been called anti-Semitic.

National Book Foundation Executive Director Ruth Dickey said in a recent statement that Coates was being honored for a body of work rather than any individual book, and added that while the foundation condemns anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry, it also believes in free expression.

“Anyone examining the work of any publisher, over the course of almost five decades, will find individual works or opinions with which they disagree or find offensive,” she added.

DREW BARRYMORE DROPPED AS HOST OF NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS AFTER BRINGING TALK SHOW BACK AMID SAG STRIKES

The National Book Awards have long taken place in mid-November, shortly after the elections, and they’re an early snapshot of the book world’s reaction: Hopeful after Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, when publisher and honorary winner Barney Rosset anticipated “a new and uplifting agenda”; grim but determined in 2016, after Donald Trump’s first victory, with fiction winner Colson Whitehead urging the audience to “be kind to everybody, make art, and fight the power.”

This year, as hundreds gathered for the dinner ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in downtown Manhattan for the awards’ 75th anniversary, the mood was one of sobriety, resolve and willed good cheer.

Author Jason De Leon attends the 75th National Book Awards ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in New York. (Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

Host Kate McKinnon joked that she was recruited because the National Book Foundation wanted “something fun and light and to distract from the fact that the world is a bonfire.” Musical guest Jon Batiste led the audience in a round of “When the Saints Go Marching In” and sang a few lines from “Hallelujah,” the Leonard Cohen standard which McKinnon somberly performed at the start of the first “Saturday Night Live” after the 2016 election.

Kingsolver acknowledged feeling “smacked down, at the moment,” but added that she has known despair before. She likened truth and love to forces of nature, like gravity and the sun, always there whether you see them or not. The writer’s job is to imagine “a better ending than the one we’ve been given,” she said.

At a Tuesday night reading by awards finalists, some spoke of community and support. Everett began his turn by confiding that he really “needed this kind of inspiration after the last couple of weeks. We kind of need each other right now.” After warning that “hope is not a strategy,” he paused and said, “Never had a situation felt so absurd, surreal and ridiculous.”

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It took a moment to realize he wasn’t discussing current events, but rather reading from “James.”

Goldie Hawn revealed that she struggled with anxiety and had “little panic attacks” after landing her first big acting role in Hollywood.

During the latest episode of the podcast “Making Space with Hoda Kotb,” the 78-year-old actress recalled auditioning for the sitcom “Good Morning World” in 1967, though she believed that she was too young for the role. However, Hawn said her agent called her the following day to tell her that the show’s producers wrote a part specifically for her.

The “Overboard” star shared that she became “depressed” and “anxious” after hearing the news.

“And that’s because I didn’t want to do that. I was a dancer,” Hawn explained.”I was just getting my feet wet.”

GOLDIE HAWN ADMITS SHE AND KURT RUSSELL ‘DON’T AGREE ON EVERYTHING,’ INCLUDING POLITICS

She continued, “I called home. And I said, ‘Mommy, you’re not gonna believe this. You know, they wrote a part for me.’ And then I became anxious, and I had little panic attacks.”

“I realized that every time I’d go into a restaurant or a place, I’d get dizzy, and I would want to go home,” she added.

“It was the scariest thing that ever happened to me.”

— Goldie Hawn

Hawn recalled that while she was filming “Good Morning World,” there were times when she had to “go back to my dressing room to pull myself together because I didn’t know when another panic attack was going to happen.”

Hawn was cast in the sitcom “Good Morning World” in 1967. (CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)

The actress told Kotb that she decided to seek professional help and began seeing a psychologist. 

“I went directly because it wasn’t me,” she remembered. “I mean, I was a happy kid.”

“Nothing bothered me,” she continued. “I was joyful… I didn’t know what happened to my joy.”

“I tried to fake my smile. I’ll never forget that. It was the scariest thing that ever happened to me.”

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The actress won an Oscar for her performance in 1969’s “Cactus Flower.” (FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images)

Hawn starred alongside Ronnie Schell, Joby Baker, Billy De Wolfe and Julie Parrish in “Good Morning World,” which ran for one season from 1967 to 1968.

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After “Good Morning World” ended, Hawn went on to become a regular cast member in the hit comedy sketch TV series “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In,” which aired from 1968 to 1973. She landed her first major movie role in the 1969 comedy “Cactus Flower,” earning the best supporting actress Academy Award for her performance.

While speaking with Kotb, Hawn explained that being proactive about her mental health enabled her to manage her fears and learn to be unaffected by other people’s opinions of her.

Hawn said she has learned to not be affected by other people’s opinions of her. (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

“When I was anxious and frightened and scared, I went to a doctor and I spent nine years with him,” she said. “Why? Because I was learning about myself. I was learning about how to forgive. And I was learning – as I grew extremely successful – how to be able to manage other people’s perception of me because they didn’t know me.” 

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“When somebody says, ‘I love you, you’re great,’ that’s wonderful. But they don’t know me,” Hawn continued.

“And if people say, ‘Ew,’ you know, or you get bad reviews and they’re all so mean and terrible, you go, ‘Well, that was their perception but it’s not the truth.’”

The International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected challenges from Israel and issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday.

The ICC charged Netanyahu and Gallant with “crimes against humanity and war crimes,” including using starvation as a method of warfare and targeting civilians. Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the move in a statement on Thursday.

“Taken in bad faith, the outrageous decision at the ICC has turned universal justice into a universal laughingstock. It makes a mockery of the sacrifice of all those who fight for justice – from the Allied victory over the Nazis till today,” Herzog wrote.

Herzog argued that the ICC’s decision ignores Hamas’ use of human shields and its Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks that started the war, as well as the Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza.

‘CHEERLEADING FOR TERRORISM’: TWITCH STAR CALLED FOR NEW 9/11, DISMISSED HORROR OF OCT 7

“Indeed, the decision has chosen the side of terror and evil over democracy and freedom, and turned the very system of justice into a human shield for Hamas’ crimes against humanity,” he added. “This cynical exploitation of the international legal institutions reminds us once again of the need for true moral clarity in the face of an Iranian empire of evil that seeks to destabilize our region and the world, and destroy the very institutions of the free world.”

BIDEN REVERSES TRUMP, LIFTS SANCTIONS ON INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Israel made several efforts to block the ICC from approving the arrest warrants. They first argued that the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel, but the court said it could issue the arrest warrants as part of the “territorial jurisdication of Palestine.”

Israel also made other procedural challenges, but they were rejected.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the ICC for issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. (AP/Ben Curtis)

The ICC’s move comes just days after Senate Majority Leader-elect John Thune threatened to hit the court with sanctions if it moved forward with the arrest warrants.

Thune – who was selected last week to be the next Senate majority leader once the GOP takes the upper chamber come January 2025 – warned that if the current Democratic leader does not take on the international court, he will.

ISRAELI OFFICIAL PRAISES STEFANIK AS UN PICK, SAYS HER ‘MORAL CLARITY’ WILL COMBAT BODY’S ‘HATE AND LIES’

“If the ICC and its prosecutor do not reverse their outrageous and unlawful actions to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, the Senate should immediately pass sanctions legislation, as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis,” Thune wrote on X. “If Majority Leader Schumer does not act, the Senate Republican majority will stand with our key ally Israel and make this – and other supportive legislation – a top priority in the next Congress.”

(Sen. John Thune, right, urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to take action against the ICC.)

The U.S. does not officially recognize the ICC’s authority, but it is not the first time Washington has looked to halt the court’s actions.

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In 2020, the Trump administration opposed attempts by the ICC to investigate U.S. soldiers and the CIA involved in alleged war crimes between 2003-2004 “in secret detention facilities in Afghanistan,” and issued sanctions against ICC prosecutors.

President Biden’s administration undid those sanctions shortly after entering office.

MARCO ISLAND, FL – EXCLUSIVE – Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the new chair of the Republican Governors Association, says a top mission for GOP governors going forward will be helping President-elect Trump.

Kemp highlighted in a Fox News Digital interview that Republican governors spent the past four years “pushing back” on President Biden’s administration.

And speaking to the media for the first time after being elected RGA chair at the group’s annual winter meeting – held this year at a waterfront resort in southwest Florida – the popular conservative two-term governor said on Wednesday that “we need to focus on making sure that we’re getting the Trump administration off to a strong start.”

KEMP SAYS JUSTICE WAS ‘SWIFT AND SEVERE’ FOR MAN CONVICTED OF KILLING LAKEN RILEY

For two years following his 2020 election loss to President Biden, Trump heavily criticized Kemp for refusing to help overturn his razor-thin defeat in Georgia.

Trump urged, and then supported, a 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary challenge against Kemp by former Sen. David Perdue. But the former president toned down his criticism of the governor after Kemp crushed Perdue to easily win renomination on his way to re-election.

REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS SAY WITH TRUMP ELECTION, ‘WE’VE GOT A FRIEND IN THE WHITE HOUSE’

But Trump, at a rally in Atlanta in August, unexpectedly went on a tirade against the Georgia governor – only to publicly praise Kemp just a few weeks later in a major about-face for the former president. And the two politicians teamed up in October – for the first time in four years – to survey hurricane damage in Georgia.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp after speaking at a temporary relief shelter as he visits areas impacted by Hurricane Helene, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Evans, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Kemp, looking forward to working again with a Republican White House administration, said that “from the governors’ perspective, we’ve got two years to make them successful and help them be successful up there, and to undo what the Biden-Harris administration has done.”

Republicans held onto the 27-23 gubernatorial advantage in this month’s elections, thanks in part to the efforts of the RGA.

“We’re ready to keep working as we move into what will be a tough cycle for us in Virginia, in New Jersey [the only two states to hold elections for governor in 2025] and then having 36 races in 2026.”

Kemp emphasized that “my goal is for us to continue to raise enough money to be competitive. The Democrats are out spending us because they have big check writers, but we have a lot of really dedicated donors. We’ll try to continue to build the tent, make sure that we have good candidates and win because our policies are better.”

Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia is interviewed by Fox News Digital, on Sept. 27, 2022 in Alpharetta, Georgia, during his re-election campaign. (Fox News )

Kemp said his comfortable re-election in 2022 and Trump’s victory in Georgia earlier this month in the presidential election “gives us a lot of confidence, a lot of hope, but we also know that the ’26 midterm is going to be tough.” 

Kemp is term-limited and can’t seek another term in office in 2026. The contest to succeed him will be a top gubernatorial election in two years.

“I’m gonna be very engaged, you can rest assured, to making sure that my [successors] are Republican. I have a vested interest in doing that,” Kemp said. “We’ll be working with the Trump administration and a lot of other people to make sure that that’s happening not only in Georgia, but in other states around the country, in places like Kansas, where we have a Democratic governor right now, in places like Arizona, where we have a really good shot at winning the governor’s races. So we’re going to be on offense.”

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Georgia will also have a high-profile Senate showdown, as Republicans aim to defeat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026.

Asked if he’ll be courted by national Republicans to take on Ossoff, Kemp responded “well, I may.”

But he quickly pivoted, stressing that “my focus right now, being just elected the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, is on raising money for us to be competitive in 2025 and 2026. I’ve made the commitment to do that, and I’m gonna fulfill that commitment. We’ll see what happens down the road with anything else.”

Asked if he’s not ruling out a possible 2026 Senate bid or even a 2028 White House run, the governor diplomatically said “I try to keep all doors open in politics.”