Lena Dunham's controversial X-rated joke in speech at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce wedding shocks guests
Topics: Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce
Thomas Bamford
Featured Image Credit: Larry Busacca/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBC
Topics: Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce
While the world was busy picking apart Taylor Swift's Christian Dior Haute Couture gown and Cartier jewellery, it seems the real talking point among guests at her wedding to Travis Kelce came from the microphone rather than the aisle.
Girls creator Lena Dunham, a close friend of Swift's for more than a decade, took to the stage to deliver a speech at the couple's rehearsal dinner on Thursday, held at Madison Square Garden's Infosys Theater ahead of Friday's main ceremony.
The pair's bond runs deep, with Dunham recently gushing about Swift in the acknowledgements of her memoir Famesick, describing her as someone who always answers her friends in their most desperate moments, no matter how busy her schedule gets.
According to the Daily Mail, Dunham didn't hold back, telling the room, "American football is just straight guys reenacting gay porn."
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The joke, aimed squarely at NFL star groom Kelce, reportedly split the room, with a source describing the reaction as 'divided' and made up of a mixture of 'gasps and laughs.'
The crowd in question included several current and former NFL players and coaches, among them Jason Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt, San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp and New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel.
Despite the mixed response from the floor, Swift herself was reportedly firmly on Team Dunham.
A source told the Daily Mail that the bride called her friend's joke "genius" after the speech wrapped up.
It wouldn't have been the first time Swift has shown up for Dunham on a big day. The singer served as a bridesmaid at Dunham's wedding to musician Luis Felber in September 2021, and gave what was described at the time as "a really sweet speech celebrating them as a couple."
Elsewhere on the guest list, the Daily Mail reported that an unnamed 'household-name celebrity' had asked for an invite and been turned down.
Notably absent from proceedings altogether was Swift's former best friend Blake Lively, following the pair's well-documented falling out over Lively's public legal dispute with her It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni.
Also present for both the rehearsal dinner and the main event was Dunham's ex-boyfriend Jack Antonoff, Swift's longtime music collaborator, who dated Dunham between 2012 and 2017. Antonoff, who is now married to actress Margaret Qualley, reportedly brought his sister Rachel as his plus-one to Thursday's dinner rather than his wife.