When Makayla Stephens' in-laws decided to have a last-minute family Halloween gathering in October 2020, she wasn't exactly prepared with a costume.
"They were like, 'Hey, by the way, everybody's required to wear a costume,'" she tells TODAY.com with a laugh, adding that there were no Halloween costume stores open or anything of the sort due to the pandemic.
So instead, she and husband Nick turned to their closets.
He emerged with his Travis Kelce jersey and she decided to wing it as Taylor Swift in her Lover era.
"I wanted to do the glitter heart around my eye," she laughs. "It's, like, the most ... half-assed costumes! They're truly just clothes I had in my closet and then I put some glitter on my eye."
She posted the photo with a caption that has amazingly aged well since:
"I don’t know any world in which Taylor Swift + Travis Kelce would be in the same room together, but apparently in this one they’re married?"
Three years later, on Sept. 24, Swift and Kelce made headlines around the world when the singer showed up to watch the tight end's Kansas City Chiefs take on the Chicago Bears.
"I was like, 'These are the two most random people in the entire world who would be together at the same time!'" Stephens laughs.
Now, because the couple “predicted the tea” of the possible relationship three years ago, Lipton Iced Tea is sending them to the Chiefs game against the New York Jets this weekend, which Swift is planning to attend, according to sources close to the situation.
Earlier this week, Stephens spotted a video online suggesting dressing as Swift and Kelce for Halloween and "audibly gasped" — realizing they'd done the exact same costume three years prior.
Stephens took to TikTok to share her story, posting a video with photographic evidence of their 2020 outing as Kelce and Swift.
"So long story short, I am not saying I manifested their relationship or situationship, if you want to call it that," she said in the video. "But I am saying that I did the Halloween costume first."
Stephens — who lives in Moore, Oklahoma — says she has been a longtime fan of Swift while her husband has spent his whole life rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs. They've each joined the other's fandoms — spending Sundays watching the Chiefs and seeing Swift when she performed in Kansas City — so the fact their costumes have come back around feels full circle, she says.
"He's made me a Chiefs fan, and I've made him a Swiftie," she says. "So it feels like it's all coming together."
She told TODAY.com Sept. 28 there was “a chance” they would attend the Chiefs game against the New York Jets this coming weekend, if a potential sponsorship works out.
Just a few days later, they headed to New York with two tickets to the Sunday Night Football game on the "Fif-tea yard line," sponsored by Lipton Iced Tea.
She previously said that her husband has been “very supportive” of their brush with Taylor Nation viral fame for their prescient Halloween costume. But with a trip to an away game in the works, he’s even more excited.
“Now he’s like, ‘Come on, whatever we need to do!’” she laughs.
Stephens shared a few pictures of them at the airport Saturday morning, featuring their plane tickets.
I am completely without words that THIS is my life right now!!!," she wrote, adding the world, Statue of Liberty, tea pot and yellow heart emoji.
