Heidi Gardner enlisted Travis Kelce for a few of romantic skits during his Saturday Night Live debut last year, but she is no danger to his fiancée, Taylor Swift. “It was cool because right before dress rehearsal, we were in a scene where we were in bed together — sorry, Taylor,” Gardner, 40, said on Friday.
“He leaned into me just before lights appeared on the scene and said, ‘I’ve been eating Uncrustables [sandwiches] all day.’” And I said, ‘Cool.’” Kelce, 34, hosted SNL for the first time in March 2023, three months before beginning his relationship with Swift, also 34.
During the variety series, he joined Gardner for a sketch called “Garrett From Hinge” in which they played a couple getting ready for bed when her former dating app match (played by Bowen Yang) interrupted their moment. In a follow-up skit, Kelce appeared in a “NFL Gives Back” PSA spoof for women with little partners and had to pull Gardner into the air.
Gardner believed Kelce’s performance on the variety show would be a hit when she suggested it to showrunner Lorne Michaels months ago. (Gardner, a Kansas City native, is a huge fan of Kelce and the Chiefs football team.)
“[Lorne] said, ‘Well, he has to win the Super Bowl,’” she remembered on Friday. “And I said, ‘Well, that’s a really big ask.’” And then he won the Super Bowl! Then he hosted Saturday Night Live, and I believe he won. “He did an excellent job.
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“I asked him questions, which also as a sports fan I’m just interested in, but I was like, ‘On game day, what do you eat?’” Gardner informed hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager. “He was like, ‘Uncrustable. I am just hammering Uncrustables. Yes, even during the game. So, on the Saturday of the event, I went to the the store and grabbed him some Uncrustables. “I wanted this to feel as much like home as possible.”
