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This article details allegations of sexual assault.
Amid Taylor Swift’s highly-publicized relationship with NFL star Travis Kelce, she has welcomed some brand new members into her girl squad — namely Brittany Mahomes.
Brittany is married to Travis’s best friend and Kansas City Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes, and she and Taylor have been repeatedly pictured watching the football games together from VIP suites.
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In fact, the two commanded attention last month when they were filmed debuting a specially choreographed handshake as they cheered on their respective partners.
Brittany has even infiltrated Taylor’s inner circle of A-list friends, and was spotted going to dinner with Taylor, Sophie Turner, Gigi Hadid, Selena Gomez, and Cara Delevingne this past weekend.
And on Tuesday, Taylor made her debut on Brittany’s Instagram page after they both enjoyed a night out with Lyndsay Bell and Paige Buechele, who are also married to Chiefs players.
In one of the photos, Taylor has her arm wrapped around Brittany as the four women toast their glasses of champagne. In a second image, Taylor’s leaning on Brittany as they pointedly sip their drinks.
But this new friendship hasn’t gone down well with fans, who have taken to social media to draw attention to Brittany’s problematic history, which largely relates to her brother-in-law Jackson Mahomes.
During a visit to Aspens Restaurant and Lounge on Feb. 25 of this year, Jackson was accused of repeatedly shoving a young male waiter. The female owner of the establishment, Aspen Vaughn, intervened and asked to speak to Jackson in her office. At this point, he allegedly shut the office door, grabbed her by the throat, and forcibly tried to kiss her multiple times.
The incident was captured on CCTV video and began circulating online in March, and Aspen alleged to the Kansas City Star: “He forcibly kissed me out of nowhere, and I’m telling him, pushing him off saying, ‘What are you doing?’ and then he proceeded to do it two more times.”
“The last time I was pushing him off, and I can see on the cameras that somebody was outside the office door, and I was yelling for them to come help, because he’s big and massive,” she claimed, adding that she was “in shock” during the “disgusting” incident.
At the time, Jackson’s attorney Brandon Davies told the publication: “Jackson has done nothing wrong. Our investigation has revealed substantial evidence refuting the claims of Jackson's accuser including the statements of several witnesses. We have reached out to law enforcement to provide the fruit of our investigation so that they may have a complete picture of the matter."
Jackson was arrested and briefly jailed for the alleged assault in May, with court records showing that he was charged with three felony counts of aggravated sexual battery and a fourth misdemeanor count of battery.
He was released on a $100,000 bond, and the preliminary hearing was initially scheduled for August before being delayed due to the judge falling sick. It was postponed for a second time last month, and a new date has now been set for January.
At the time, Jackson’s brother Patrick was asked about the arrest during a press conference for one of his games — but he refused to discuss it. He said: “It’s kind of a personal thing that I’m going to keep to myself."
“At the end of the day, I come here to play football and try to take care of my family at the same time,” he went on. “So I just kind of keep it to myself and just go out there and play football when I’m in the building.”
But Patrick’s wife, Brittany, was less diplomatic when she was seemingly asked about the allegations during an Instagram Q&A in April. At this point, the video of the alleged assault had been circulating for over a month, but Jackson hadn’t yet been arrested.
One of Brittany’s followers asked her: “How do you feel about the comments about your BIL,” and she did not hold back in her response.
“They are ignorant. He is a human just trying to live his life and find his way, and until you walk a day in his shoes (which no one ever will), you have no right to say shit about him,” she answered, adding a smiley face emoji.
Brittany then wrote: “So it’s best to just shut up.”
In addition to her growing friendship with Brittany, Taylor has also directly interacted with Jackson in front of fans. In fact, she included him in her and Brittany’s special handshake, with Jackson watching the game from the same box as them.
And when Brittany shared the photos of her night out with Taylor on Tuesday, Jackson quickly commented, “so funnn,” on the post. Some fans have taken the comment to mean that he was also in attendance, although this is unconfirmed.
Fans have been left disappointed by Taylor’s choice to associate with both Jackson and Brittany, especially as she had been so vocal about being an ally to sexual assault victims after she herself was assaulted in 2013.
If you need reminding, Taylor won an incredibly high-profile lawsuit against a former radio host who she said had groped her when they posed for a photo together. Taylor has publicly addressed this case several times since, and even discussed it on stage during her Reputation tour in 2018.
On the one-year anniversary of the jury ruling in her favor, Taylor told her fans: “I guess I just think about all the people that weren’t believed and people who haven’t been believed and the people who are afraid to speak up because they think they won’t be believed.”
“And I just wanted to say that I’m sorry to anyone who ever wasn’t believed, because I don’t know what turn my life would take if people didn’t believe me when I said that something had happened to me,” she went on.
Prior to the sexual assault allegations, Jackson had sparked backlash on several other occasions. In 2021, he was heavily criticized after he dumped water on a group of fans when the Chiefs lost a game. Jackson later tried to make light of his behavior by joking that the fans had been “thirsty.”
And that same year, Jackson triggered controversy when he recorded a TikTok dance while standing on the uniform number of Sean Taylor, an NFL star who was murdered in 2007. Sean was being honored with a jersey retirement ceremony that day, and Jackson eventually issued a statement to say that he hadn’t intentionally danced on his number.
Meanwhile, Brittany Mahomes’s friendship with Brittany Kerr Aldean has also come under fire in recent months. Brittany is married to country singer Jason Aldean, who was accused of releasing a “modern lynching song” with his track “Try That in a Small Town” earlier this year.
And last year, Brittany Kerr Aldean was at the center of a scandal of her own after she criticized parents who supported their kids’ desire to transition. She was accused of making anti-trans comments as she called gender affirming care “one of the worst evils.”
Defending her remarks during an interview on Fox News, Brittany Kerr Aldean doubled down as she insisted that she was “advocating for children.”
And this friendship hasn’t been Taylor’s only brush with controversy as she navigates the dating world after splitting from her long-term boyfriend Joe Alwyn earlier this year.
In May, less than a month after her and Joe’s split had been announced, Taylor was accused of being a “complicit white woman” as she struck up a romance with British singer Matty Healy, who has been accused of racism and misogyny on several occasions.
Just months before they started dating, Matty had been filmed doing a Nazi salute on stage, and he’d even admitted to masturbating to Black women being “brutalized” during a podcast appearance.
Taylor was initially defiant as the backlash from her own dedicated fans started to grow, and even made pointed comments about being the happiest she’s ever been after Matty’s problematic comments had resurfaced.
They ended up splitting after one month of dating, shortly after an old podcast clip of Matty laughing as his friends referred to Taylor’s mom as “Miss Piggy” emerged online.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
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