Saturday Night Live star opens up on ‘tailgating’ with Travis Kelce before Chiefs icon hosted the show
Travis Kelce spoke to the stars of Saturday Night Live before hosting the hit show, Heidi Gardner has revealed.
The Kansas City tight end, who is now pursuing a career behind the camera, made his SNL hosting debut in March 2023.
Gardner is a Chiefs fan and recently started working with Kelce before he went public with his romance with Taylor Swift.
The NFL star joined Gardner’s friends and family for dinner before the show, with Kelce’s older brother Jason also making an appearance.
“I just know for a fact that this is the only host in the history of SNL that has ever grown a ponytail before hosting,” she told the network. ‘Not skinny but not fat’ podcast.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to have a tailgate in my room,’ because Arrowhead Stadium is famous for tailgating.
Travis Kelce spoke with Saturday Night Live’s Heidi Gardner (R) before she hosted the show
Kelce fulfilled a lifelong ambition when he appeared as a guest SNL host in March 2023
Seven months later, the NFL star and girlfriend Taylor Swift made brief cameos on the show
“That’s what we do at the stadium in Kansas City. People show up early and go to the back. They smoke barbecue all morning, share their food and you just stay behind.”
Gardner added, “I got a barbecue, we went to the dressing room before the show and he came back with his brother Jason, and they had a barbecue before he hosted SNL.”
Gardner, who joined SNL in 2017, claims she invited younger brother Kelce to the tailgate earlier this week but didn’t think the 35-year-old would show up.
“That morning he was so nice. Jeff, one of our talent department guys knocked on my dressing room, and I opened it, and he had cans of tequila soda…he said, ‘These are Travis’s for the tailgate,'” Gardner explained.
She then appeared in a skit alongside both Kelce brothers and said it was “so much fun” working with them.
It had taken Gardner “a few years” to convince SNL bosses to invite Kelce, with Lorne Michaels saying Kelce had to win a second Super Bowl before he could host the show.
The Chiefs clinched the Vince Lombardi Trophy in February 2023, with Kelce appearing on SNL a few weeks later. He and Swift then made brief cameos in October 2023.