A viral clip circulating social media right now arguably says more about American marriage than most think pieces will this year. In it is Taylor Swift, beaming, pointing to her wedding ring mouthing “that’s my husband” as she cheers for Travis Kelce during the Chiefs vs. Colts game. 
The commentary poured in immediately. While some found the moment sweet and supportive, others called it “cringe,” “performative,” and “fake.” That split is a story worth talking about — because somewhere in the last 30 years, our culture trained women to believe that devotion and public admiration of a husband is naive. The smart move, the relatable move, is to joke about his incompetence and to position yourself as better than him. 
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Taylor Swift shows off her $1 million diamond ring while yelling “that’s my husband” at Travis Kelce during NFL game. <a href="https://t.co/QPVxhacEME">pic.twitter.com/QPVxhacEME</a>
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) <a href="https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/2101985794026287580?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 21, 2026</a></blockquote>
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This script shows up repeatedly in our everyday lives. Sit through the first PTA meeting of the school year and count how many introductions include some version of  &#8220;I have four kids, including my husband.&#8221; From Al Bundy&#8217;s lazy, defeated persona in the &#8217;90s to Phil Dunphy bumbling his way through &#8220;Modern Family,&#8221; dads in the media and pop culture have been rewritten again and again as dumb or embarrassing rather than honorable, wise, or courageous. It&#8217;s sold to women as bonding, a wink that says we&#8217;re all managing these lovable idiots together. But here’s the hard truth. This isn&#8217;t bonding; it’s training. It teaches wives to see their husbands as burdens instead of leaders and it teaches husbands that trying harder won’t change the punchline. 
Eventually, a lot of husbands stop trying altogether.
Contempt is not comedy, and the normalization of demeaning husbands should worry us a lot more than it does. John Gottman, a psychologist who has spent decades <a href="https://www.gottman.com/blog/the-four-horsemen-contempt/">studying</a> what predicts divorce, found that the single strongest predictor was contempt, the eye-roll, the mockery, the &#8220;you&#8217;re an idiot.&#8221;
So if contempt creates divorce, what does the research say will create happy wives and happy marriages? The Institute for Family Studies has asked, and the answer keeps landing in the same place: devotion. 
In a <a href="https://ifstudies.org/report-brief/for-better-four-proven-ways-to-a-strong-and-stable-marriage">2025 IFS/Wheatley survey</a>, wives who said their marriage was one of the most important things in their life were 399% more likely to report being very happy in it, compared to wives who didn&#8217;t feel that level of commitment. That is nearly five times the odds, and it had nothing to do with a bigger house or a better vacation. It came from how seriously a wife took her marriage.
Protection mattered too. Wives who said it was &#8220;definitely true&#8221; that their husbands were protective were 137% <a href="https://ifstudies.org/report-brief/for-better-four-proven-ways-to-a-strong-and-stable-marriage">more likely</a> to be very happy in their marriages than wives who didn&#8217;t. Brad Wilcox, one of the study&#8217;s authors, made an interesting observation. He interviewed wives across the political spectrum, left and right, and the ones who felt physically safe with their husbands were &#8220;markedly happier.” 
Here&#8217;s the part I think about most, though, especially as the mother of young boys: They&#8217;re watching how I talk about their father. If the culture&#8217;s default script is &#8220;Dad is a lovable moron,&#8221; my sons learn they&#8217;re punchlines waiting to happen, and any daughter watching learns that admiring a man is something to be embarrassed about. Marriage is catechesis, whether or not you mean to teach a class. I am raising four future husbands, and I will not teach them that the man of the house is a punchline. I will teach them that he is someone to be honored and adored. 
And before the criticism floods in, this isn&#8217;t tradwife cosplay. I work. I write. I also think being a wife and mother is my central vocation, and I don&#8217;t see any tensions between these roles. 
So here&#8217;s the assignment, and it’s a simple one: Say the uncool sentence out loud. Brag about your husband at the dinner table, point at the ring, tell him you’re proud of him. Because our children are listening. They are learning from us what marriage is supposed to look like, and they need to know that marriage is not a decades-long competition over who is smarter, more competent, or less annoying. It is two people who chose each other, who chose to honor, protect, forgive, and delight in one another.
That’s what made the Taylor Swift clip so striking. For a few seconds, there was no ironic detachment. There wasn’t an eye roll or a joke at her husband’s expense. Instead it was a woman, in front of a stadium and a national audience, absolutely delighted to say that’s my husband.
We could use a lot more of that.
***
Clare Ath is the co-founder and president of Vita et Terra, a conservative Catholic environmental nonprofit that champions care for creation.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

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Taylor Swift Apparently Committed The Ultimate Modern Marriage Sin

institute for family studies

marriage

modern family

opinion

taylor swift

travis kelce

The illegal immigrant convicted of defrauding Taylor Swift&#8217;s husband, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, in a $35 million Ponzi scheme overstayed his visa and had a conviction for another crime, The Daily Wire has learned.
Indian national Siddharth Jawahar, 38, was sentenced last week to 11 years in prison and ordered to pay $31.35 million in restitution to the victims, including Kelce and others. During a recent court hearing, Kelce was named as a victim in the case, <a href="https://www.firstalert4.com/2026/09/15/chiefs-tight-end-travis-kelce-named-victim-multi-million-dollar-fraud-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to KMOV.
Before his conviction, Jawahar entered the United States on multiple occasions between August 2005 and January 2010, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told The Daily Wire. He became an illegal immigrant after overstaying a visa.
At one point, Jawahar also had a prior conviction for driving while intoxicated in Texas, DHS said.
Jawahar ran the Texas-based investment firm Swiftarc Capital LLC, which he used to funnel his clients’ money into a single investment, Philip Morris Pakistan (PMP), in 2015, according to the Justice Department. Eventually, PMP held 99% of Jawahar&#8217;s clients’ funds.
When PMP&#8217;s value plunged, Jawahar failed to notify investors and falsely claimed they were making a profit, per the Justice Department. He also led his clients to believe he would invest their money in specific companies, but never actually did.
Jawahar received more than $35 million from Swiftarc investors between July 2016 and December 2023, according to the Justice Department. Only roughly $10 million of those funds were invested.
The Indian national used new investors’ money to repay the older investors. He also used the funds to pay for his personal travel on private jets, luxury hotel stays, a luxury apartment in Austin and New York City, memberships at multiple private clubs across the country, shopping sprees, and expensive meals at fancy restaurants.
After being indicted, Jawahar tried to &#8220;coach&#8221; one of his victims into providing a “favorable” statement to the FBI, the Justice Department said. He also lied about his status as an illegal immigrant and his finances, and tried to have his sister scrub evidence from his phone.
Jawahar pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud in January.
He managed more than a dozen other investment firms, according to the Justice Department.
A DHS spokesperson condemned Jawahar&#8217;s actions in a statement that appeared to reference Swift&#8217;s popular music lyrics.
&#8220;This criminal mastermind’s endgame was to steal their money so he could be popping champagne in the lap of luxury, but karma has finally tackled him. Once he completes his sentence, he will be swiftly deported from the United States and live the rest of his life in exile,&#8221; the spokesperson said.
&#8220;Illegal aliens exploiting Americans is nothing new after many years of open borders and sanctuary policies, but the men and women of DHS know all too well how to handle such cases,&#8221; the spokesperson said. &#8220;DHS remains chiefly committed to deporting illegal aliens so that we can prevent such injustices from ever happening again.&#8221;

i (2)

EXCLUSIVE: Background Of Illegal Immigrant Who Defrauded Travis Kelce Revealed

department of homeland security

fraud

illegal immigration

An illegal immigrant carried out a Ponzi scheme that defrauded Taylor Swift&#8217;s husband and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, among other wealthy figures, to the tune of $35 million, according to multiple reports.
U.S. District Judge Zachary M. Bluestone sentenced Siddharth Jawahar, 38, to 11 years behind bars and ordered him to pay $31.35 million in restitution to the victims, the Justice Department said in a Tuesday <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-edmo/pr/illegal-immigrant-sentenced-11-years-prison-multimillion-dollar-ponzi-scheme">statement</a>.
Kelce was named as a victim in the case during a recent court hearing, <a href="https://www.firstalert4.com/2026/09/15/chiefs-tight-end-travis-kelce-named-victim-multi-million-dollar-fraud-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to KMOV. A 2021 Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/timcasey/2021/06/14/how-orlando-magic-guard-gary-harris-grew-to-enjoy-venture-capital-technology-real-estate-and-other-business-topics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> also identified Kelce as an investor in Swiftarc Ventures.
Jawahar ran Swiftarc Capital LLC, a Texas-based investment firm, which he used to funnel his clients&#8217; funds into a single investment, Philip Morris Pakistan (PMP), in 2015, according to the Justice Department. He eventually placed 99% of his clients&#8217; funds into PMP.
Jawahar did not notify investors when PMP&#8217;s value plunged and falsely claimed they were making a profit, according to the Justice Department. He also led investors to believe he&#8217;d invested their money into specific companies, but never actually did.
Between July 2016 and December 2023, Jawahar received more than $35 million from Swiftarc investors, but only roughly $10 million of those funds were invested, according to the Justice Department.
He used new investors&#8217; money to repay the older investors and fund his personal travel on private jets, luxury hotel stays, a luxury apartment in Austin and New York City, memberships at multiple private clubs across the country, clothing shopping sprees and expensive meals at fancy restaurants.
Following his indictment, Jawahar tried coaching one of his victims into giving a &#8220;favorable&#8221; statement to federal investigators, the Justice Department said. He also lied about his status as an illegal immigrant and his finances, and tried to have his sister wipe his phone of evidence.
Jawahar pleaded guilty in January to three counts of wire fraud.
The illegal immigrant also managed more than a dozen other investment firms, according to the Justice Department.

Denver Broncos v Kansas City Chiefs – NFL 2026

Taylor Swift’s Husband Travis Kelce Falls Victim To Illegal Immigrant Crime

crime

Once upon a time, a princess was among the fairest in the land. This princess did not laze about, complaining about the pea underneath her stack of mattresses. Instead, she went out and achieved things from a young age. Sure, there was help along the way, because that’s how life works, but this girl made a name for herself. She was an aspiring queen, not content with nepo baby dreams.
Her voice was her claim to fame, though her visage didn’t hurt. Nor did her relatability impede her rise. For while she was a modern American princess, she was also given to heartbreak. And she laid it bare in song after song, album after album. That is, until our girl, who could’ve been a cheerleader in a different timeline, met her prince from the football field.
Of course, I’m talking about Madison Beer. Who else would fit the description above?
Born in 1999, the singer began her climb in 2012 when Justin Bieber reposted her cover of Etta James’s “At Last” to his followers. From there, she became known for her cover tunes. Her first solo album arrived in 2021, her second in 2023, and her most recent in January of this year. That was roughly six months before she and her fiancé, Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, hard-launched the engagement on Instagram on July 28.
May the couple experience marital bliss, a union destined for the ages, an inspiration for other young couples all over the world, a pairing so perfect the James Beard Foundation starts wondering if it deserves an award. But while both are fine, they are not Taylor and Travis.
Taylor is, well, Taylor. In the parlance of Jay Z, she’s not a businessman; she’s a business, man. People might get mad if you compare her to Dolly, but she is comparable to Dolly. That’s just the truth, irrespective of your feelings.
Travis is, well, Travis. He may not be a business, man, but he is an exceptional football player, even if his ability <a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/travis-kelce-hardest-part-hosting-snl-cant-really-read-1236445700/">to read words</a> can’t keep up with his ability to read defenses. Which is not a diss. A healthy society takes a lot of different types. Some dudes can take a brutal blow while catching a ball and lead their team to victory, earning millions along the way. Others can read really well, and maybe even write some words, without earning millions.
Taylor and Travis do complement one another, though. And they are both at the top of their craft. They represent not a financial goal to reach for, but a Platonic ideal. They are the heroes of modern society, and even if 99.9999999% of us will never achieve anything approaching their level of success, it’s still good to try.
Which is what Madison Beer and Justin Herbert are aspiring to. Beer is fine. She’s talented. She’s easy on the eyes. She has a large team behind her. But there’s nothing about her that really grabs you. She’s the modern corporate architecture of a musical artist. She probably won&#8217;t offend anyone, but she also won&#8217;t truly stand out.
Herbert, he’s also fine. He’s talented. He has a talented team behind him. He does well when certain metrics are considered, but not so well when one looks at <a href="https://www.houseofstrauss.com/p/the-justin-herbert-problem-isnt-just">the big picture</a>. He’s a stable central structure in a fluid landscape.
In other words, they are both adequate. They fulfill their roles with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOxpuKXhlss">adequasivity</a>. Everything in their lives goes adequately. But this isn’t about them, not really, but about the increasingly midwit <a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/rule-of-midwits">nature of the world</a>. If they excelled, it might threaten their peers’ sensitivities.
Rather, it might offend anyone. Taking a stand isn’t super popular these days. Taking a stand for standard-issue current mores doesn’t count; it isn’t actually taking a stand, just echoing the herd. The cause or issue du jour doesn’t really matter. What matters is not being on the wrong side of that issue. Art, architecture, clothing, and music become bland nothings, as attempts to placate everyone inevitably end up.
In a just world, a visionary producer would take Madison Beer under his wing and unleash her full potential. He would challenge the existing structures. We do not live in that world. The days of legendary risk-takers in the music industry are largely on pause. Rather than incubating talent, labels find talent on social media, juice them for everything they can, and then move on to the next. It’s elevator music as a business plan. It’s the safety of superhero franchises extended to a different medium. It’s listening to Madison Beer.
But it can’t hold. Just as franchises are <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/30/hollywood-ip-franchise-hits-keep-falling-flat-weighing-on-box-office.html">losing their power</a>, so too will music as a franchise. For while Madison Beer has cachet, likely boosted by her prince, artists who write their own songs rather than going for the tried-and-true formulaic approach better represent the future. Take, for example, Sienna Spiro, who writes all her own music and bests Beer across all charts.
So, while the present is mid, the future might just be bright. Whether or not it’s going to be so bright that we gotta wear shades remains to be seen. I remain optimistic, though, not because I trust myself to forecast the tastes of teens, but because I have three teenage daughters and none of them listen to Beer, including the one who’s an actual cheerleader. If the industry wants to keep their attention – and it does, because of money – it’s going to have to unleash the risk-takers of yore and let them hit the play button, because beige album after beige album isn’t going to cut it.
***
Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the Cookin&#8217; Up a Story podcast, which you can listen to <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cookin-up-a-story/id1624969096">here</a>. You can also follow him on X: @rcromwell4

The 2025 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show – Arrivals

Madison Beer And Mid Art In A Post-Taylor Swift Age

culture

justin herbert

madison beer

music industry

This year&#8217;s most talked-about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_of_Taylor_Swift_and_Travis_Kelce">wedding</a> featured a bride who earns far more than her husband. Pop superstar Taylor Swift <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinadilicosa/2025/12/30/the-highest-paid-musicians-of-2025/">earned at least four times</a> as much as NFL star <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2025/09/07/the-nfls-highest-paid-players-2025/">Travis Kelce</a> last year and her net worth is much higher than his. This reflects a broader social trend. Marriages in which the wife earns more than the husband have become increasingly common in the United States, rising from about <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/04/13/in-a-growing-share-of-u-s-marriages-husbands-and-wives-earn-about-the-same/">5% of married couples in 1972</a> to roughly 16% today. The trend is likely to continue as young women outnumber men in universities and increasingly dominate many professional occupations.
For decades, sociologists and other scholars predicted that this economic shift would gradually erode the traditional male-breadwinner norm. As women became more economically successful, they argued, people generally would become more accepting of role reversals within the household, and the greater instability historically observed among female-breadwinner couples would disappear. According to this view, those higher separation rates were largely the product of social disapproval and conflict arising from violations of traditional gender norms.
That prediction received support from a widely discussed <a href="https://www.rsfjournal.org/content/2/4/218.abstract">2016</a> study, which reported that although wives earning more than their husbands increased the risk of divorce among couples married in the 1960s and 1970s, this was no longer true for more recent marriage cohorts. The authors of that study argued that changing gender norms had weakened the influence of the traditional male breadwinner ideal. Other studies, however — including <a href="https://ifstudies.org/blog/husbands-with-much-higher-incomes-than-their-wives-have-a-lower-chance-of-divorce-">research previously discussed on this page</a> — found that female-breadwinner couples continued to face a higher risk of divorce, even among recent marriage cohorts.
The issue has now been revisited by one of the authors of the 2016 study, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jomf.70081">Pilar Gonalons-Pons, together with Allison Dunatchik</a>, using high-quality data on 544,911 married and cohabiting couples across 29 affluent countries between 2004 and 2020. Their findings strongly support the earlier findings: couples in which the woman is the primary breadwinner — defined as earning more than 60% of the couple&#8217;s total income — are more likely to separate in every country except Hungary and Cyprus (Figure 1).
The size of the effect varied across countries. In the Netherlands and Spain, female-breadwinner couples were about twice as likely to separate during the four-year study period as male-breadwinner couples. In Estonia and Bulgaria, there was little difference between couple types, while in Poland and Slovenia, the increase in risk for female-breadwinner couples was relatively small. The researchers also found that the relationship between female breadwinning and separation has diminished but not disappeared among younger cohorts.
Figure 1. Proportion of couples separating by women&#8217;s relative earnings category 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-1168321" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure1-129-.jpg" alt="" width="1876" height="1338" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure1-129-.jpg 1876w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure1-129--300x214.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure1-129--808x576.jpg 808w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure1-129--768x548.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure1-129--1536x1096.jpg 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1876px) 100vw, 1876px" /></div>
Data sources: SIPP (US), GSOEP (DE), BHPS and UKHLS (UK), and EU-SILC (all other countries). Country legend: AT = Austria, BE = Belgium, BG = Bulgaria, CY = Cyprus, CZ = Czech Republic, DE = Germany, DK = Denmark, EE = Estonia, EL = Greece, ES = Spain, FI = Finland, FR = France, HU = Hungary, IE = Ireland, IS = Iceland, IT = Italy, LT = Lithuania, LU = Luxembourg, LV = Latvia, NL = Netherlands, NO = Norway, PL = Poland, PT = Portugal, RO = Romania, SE = Sweden, SI = Slovenia, SK = Slovakia, UK = United Kingdom, US = United States
Multivariate analyses controlling for factors known to affect relationship stability — including the education of both partners, marital versus cohabiting status, parenthood, and homeownership — produced similar results. Female-breadwinner couples were 36% more likely to separate than male-breadwinner couples, all else equal. Equal-earner couples also faced a slightly higher risk, being about 6% more likely to separate than male-breadwinner couples. As expected, higher education, having children, and homeownership were all associated with greater relationship stability, but none of these factors explained the higher separation rates among female-breadwinner couples. As other studies have found, cohabiting couples were more likely to separate than married couples, but the increase in separation risk associated with having a female breadwinner was similar for both married and cohabiting couples.
<h3 class="p7">National Gender Norms or Other Factors?</h3>
The authors also examined whether this relationship was influenced by differences in national gender norms. It was not. Female-breadwinner couples were more likely to separate regardless of the proportion of people in the country who: endorsed traditional beliefs such as &#8220;a man&#8217;s primary role is to be the breadwinner,&#8221; supported dual-earner marriages, believed that children suffer when mothers work, or agreed that employed mothers can develop relationships with their children that are as warm and secure as those of stay-at-home mothers (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Average marginal effects of women&#8217;s relative earnings categories 
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-1168323" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure2-116-.jpg" alt="" width="2054" height="1202" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure2-116-.jpg 2054w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure2-116--300x176.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure2-116--984x576.jpg 984w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure2-116--768x449.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure2-116--1536x899.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/figure2-116--2048x1198.jpg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2054px) 100vw, 2054px" /></div>
Data sources: SIPP (US), GSOEP (DE), BHPS and UKHLS (UK), and EU-SILC (all other countries). 
Nor did the association vary systematically with broader measures of gender equality, such as the prevalence of female-breadwinning couples in the country, the country&#8217;s gender wage gap, or women&#8217;s educational advantage over men. The study likewise found little support for several other commonly proposed explanations. Female-breadwinner couples were not substantially less stable because women had greater financial independence, or because women increased their earnings in anticipation of divorce, or because husbands were unemployed, or because female breadwinning reflected financial hardship within the household.
So what factor did matter? The presence of children. Among couples with dependent children, female-breadwinner couples with children were 49% more likely to separate than male-breadwinner couples, a much higher rate than the 23% higher risk of separation faced by female breadwinner-couples without children. The authors suggest that this pattern is consistent with work-family conflict contributing to relationship instability, although it does not fully explain the association between female breadwinning and the risk of couple instability. Even female-breadwinner couples without dependent children faced a higher risk of dissolution.
Overall, the study provides strong evidence that female-breadwinner couples remain more likely to separate than other couples across a wide range of developed countries. Contrary to a common expectation, this pattern cannot be explained by the prevalence of traditional gender norms or by several other leading sociological explanations. Although work-family conflict appears to play some role, much of the association remains unexplained. The authors conclude that existing theories are insufficient and call for further research into why female-breadwinner couples continue to experience higher rates of relationship dissolution.
<h3 class="p7">Why These Findings Matter</h3>
These findings are unexpected. With the dramatic changes in women’s educational attainment, labor-force participation, and earnings over the past half century, gender norms have changed in many developed societies. Yet despite these changes, the relationship between female breadwinning and couple instability has proven remarkably persistent. Evolutionary psychologists suggest that this is because <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-02623-005">sex differences in mate preferences</a>, shaped over humanity&#8217;s long evolutionary history, continue to influence modern relationships. From this perspective, the association between female breadwinning and relationship instability reflects enduring psychological predispositions rather than simply social norms. Perhaps this is why there <a href="https://www.si.com/nfl/travis-kelce-taylor-swift-net-worths-compared-engagement">has been discussion</a> in the media about the fact that Taylor Swift is a billionaire and Travis Kelce a mere millionaire, even though at those stratospheric levels of wealth, it might appear irrelevant. Whether this explanation is correct remains a matter of debate, but these new findings suggest that the phenomenon of the greater instability of female-breadwinner couples is unlikely to disappear simply because societies become more gender egalitarian.
***
This is republished with permission from the <a href="https://ifstudies.org/">Institute for Family Studies</a>. The original can be found <a href="https://ifstudies.org/blog/female-breadwinner-couples-are-still-more-likely-to-split-up">here</a>.
Rosemary L. Hopcroft is Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is the author of Evolution and Gender: Why it matters for contemporary life (Routledge 2016), editor of The Oxford Handbook of Evolution, Biology, &amp; Society (Oxford, 2018), and author (with Martin Fieder and Susanne Huber) of Not So Weird After All: The Changing Relationship Between Status and Fertility (Routledge, 2024).

Composite photo collage of happy businesswoman smile run promotion aim chance success hold briefcase path isolated on painted background

Why More Money For Wives Can Mean Less Marriage

divorce

family studies

gender norms

When Dolly Parton died, the entire country went into mourning — Left and Right, virtually everyone. 
There&#8217;s a reason for that. Dolly Parton coded country. She coded Christian. She coded optimism. She coded entertainment. 
She did not code political. And she refused to engage in that way. 
This made her perhaps the most popular figure in America. 
We are never going to get another Dolly Parton because Hollywood will not allow it.
Jelly Roll just proved it.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ben-shapiro-show-ep-2494?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-981859" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Jimmy Kimmel has taken a couple of weeks off, and his substitute hosts are somehow even worse than Jimmy Kimmel. I didn&#8217;t know that was possible, but apparently it is. 
First there was Rosie O&#8217;Donnell, who returned from Ireland to wear hideous outfits and sing about the president&#8217;s penis. 
And then Jelly Roll showed up. 
You know him as the country singer who has shed a lot of pounds. He showed up to host Jimmy Kimmel’s show, and there he decided to do the obligatory mea culpa for his prior cultural conservatism by ripping into the president of the United States. He stated:
<blockquote>Well, Mr. President, from one fat pig to another, take it from me that physical fitness is very important. And trust me, you&#8217;ll be happy to see your penis again.</blockquote>
He came back and did another show the next night, and he defended his Trump jokes:
<blockquote>Let&#8217;s be honest for a second. Any U.S. president should be able to handle a few jokes, right? Yes, they should also be able to handle gas prices, health care, and the occasional international conflict. &#8230; Look, y&#8217;all, I get it that some people are mad at me for goofing on Trump, but if you wanted me to make jokes about Kamala Harris, you should have voted for her.</blockquote>
What is Jelly Roll doing? The answer is that in Hollywood, you no longer can just be Johnny Carson — where you make jokes about all the different sides — and you can no longer be Dolly Parton, where you make jokes about neither of the sides.
You just can&#8217;t do that anymore. You must repeat the left-wing nostrums. There comes a point in your career when you have to make a choice: Are you going to double down on the base? Are you going to keep dancing with the gal that brung ya? 
Or are you going to swivel hard into the cultural leftism and try to expand that base? This has been happening in the music industry for probably two to three decades, and it&#8217;s one of the reasons our cultural milieu has been completely fragmented.
That’s why there are no big stars anymore. It’s why no one can open a movie. It&#8217;s why there are very few crossover stars, even in the musical arena at this point. 
Jelly Roll is a great example of this. Remember, Jelly Roll didn&#8217;t just code conservative. He was very openly Christian and pretty conservative. His history resembles Parton&#8217;s in the sense that he&#8217;s a rags-to-riches story.
He was born Jason Bradley DeFord in Nashville in 1984 and ended up in jail before he even graduated high school. He was imprisoned at age 14. He welcomed his first child while he was still behind bars. Then, after he got out of jail and had his daughter, he decided to pursue his GED and try his hand at the music business. 
In 2003, he started out in hip-hop, pivoted to country and rock, and ended up on the Grand Ole Opry stage in November 2021. He turned into a national phenomenon. 
Along the way, he didn’t just code Country and code down-home; he also coded very hard Christian. In 2026, he won the Best Contemporary Country album. He said:
<blockquote>First of all, Jesus, I hear you and I&#8217;m listening. Lord, I am listening, Lord. Second of all, I want to thank my beautiful wife. I would have never changed my life without you. I&#8217;d end up dead or in jail. I&#8217;d have killed myself if it wasn&#8217;t for you and Jesus. I thank you for that. …
That&#8217;s why I wrote this album. I didn&#8217;t think I had a chance, y&#8217;all. There was days that I thought the darkest things. I was a horrible human. There was a moment in my life that all I had was a Bible this big, and a radio the same size and a six-by-eight-foot cell. And I believed that those two things could change my life. I believed that music had the power to change my life, and God had the power to change my life. And I want to tell y&#8217;all right now, Jesus is for everybody. Jesus is not owned by one political party. Jesus is not owned by no music label. Jesus is Jesus and anybody can have a relationship with him.</blockquote>
This is how Jelly Roll coded: very, very, very faith-based. That was his image; he certainly didn&#8217;t code Left. There is tape of him greeting President Trump and Elon Musk at an event where they got along just fine. 
And then things changed. He&#8217;s been dropping a lot of pounds. He has been saying that he loves his new body. 
He got divorced in July from the woman whom he was paying homage to at the Country Music Awards. An insider said, “The reality is that he will always love her, but that doesn&#8217;t mean he wants to stay married. He&#8217;s in a very different place than he was when they met &#8230; Jelly feels healthy, focused and in control of his future.”
What&#8217;s going on here?
What&#8217;s going on is that there&#8217;s enormous cultural pressure for people who reach a certain level of stardom to then have “crossover stardom.”
And the way you get crossover stardom is to start signaling Left. 
You can&#8217;t just live in a culturally conservative space, even if you&#8217;re not overtly political. That&#8217;s not good enough. You must speak out on issues. You must. You&#8217;ll be forced to. 
This is why there will never be a Dolly Parton again, because 1) society will not allow there to be a Dolly Parton again, and because 2) our public figures don&#8217;t have the strength of character to avoid this.
A great example of this is Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is the most successful example of somebody who went from a Dolly Parton-type figure to somebody who&#8217;s overtly political. For years and years and years, there was speculation on the Right that Taylor Swift was secretly conservative because she started off in country and the gospel area.
When she was 22, she said, “Listen, people don&#8217;t want to hear my politics. I just figure I&#8217;m a 22-year-old singer. And, you know, I don&#8217;t know if people really want to hear my political views. I think they just kind of want to hear me sing songs about breakups and feelings.”
This sounds like something Dolly Parton would say. 
But within a few years, she realized this wasn&#8217;t where the money was. This wasn&#8217;t what would allow her to achieve crossover stardom. So she did a documentary for Netflix in which she pretty openly started pushing left-wing social values because her silence was too deafening. She needed to have that crossover appeal to the Left. It made her far richer. 
But that is the price of admission. The price of admission in today&#8217;s day and age is, you must repeat, particularly on social issues, the nostrums that the Left is pushing. You must. 
Taylor Swift, back in 2020, talked about how Christian values support abortion. She did the same thing in 2020 when she was pushing LGBTQ+- politics.
It was really important for her to speak like that, because the cultural Left in Hollywood will only allow you to become a gigantic crossover star if you say things that the Left wants you to say.
Katy Perry originally started singing Christian music; she was known by her birth name, Katy Hudson, at the time. Then it turned out she couldn&#8217;t sell copies. 
So she adopted the stage name Katy Perry. And then her first big hit was about experimenting with lesbianism, and then she became an Obama surrogate, and now she&#8217;s dating Justin Trudeau.
In other words, this is not rare. What you&#8217;re watching with Jelly Roll is how you do things in Hollywood. You cannot even mildly code conservative. You must be overtly liberal. 
If you&#8217;re Sydney Sweeney and you&#8217;re not overtly conservative, just kind of apolitical, but you code a little conservative because you&#8217;re a pretty white girl and you have a little bit of a country feel to you and because you once registered Republican, this means that you are a target in Hollywood.
If you are Chris Pratt and you&#8217;re a huge star and you&#8217;ve never said anything remotely offensive, but you&#8217;re openly Christian, and you don&#8217;t go to an LGBTQ+- church, then X will come after you incessantly for years on end. If you&#8217;re Gal Gadot and you just happen to be Israeli and pro-Israel, you will get blacklisted in Hollywood.
That&#8217;s how it works. If you&#8217;re Mark Ruffalo and pretty overtly anti-Semitic, you&#8217;ll never stop working. 
If you are on the Left, you will likely never stop working. 
But that doesn&#8217;t mean this is going to work for Jelly Roll. There&#8217;s a mixed record in the country arena for this. The Dixie Chicks were a huge band. And then, in 2003, Natalie Maines decided to go after George W. Bush in London while she was on stage. The Dixie Chicks had this huge cultural moment and then disappeared. 
Maren Morris had a breakout single that was literally called “My Church.” She ended up ostracized after public fights with Jason Aldean&#8217;s wife over the kids. She went after Morgan Wallen, and then she came out as bisexual. Has that been a big boon for her career? Probably not. 
Hollywood&#8217;s dynamic used to be obvious: The entertainment industry was about protecting your stars, singers, songwriters, movie stars, and athletes. The goal of our entertainment industry was to create marketable stars who were separate from their politics. You didn&#8217;t know much about the stars. All you knew was what you saw on the screen.
This is why Dolly Parton was very famous and very rich and very good at what she did. All you saw of Dolly Parton was what she wanted you to see. 
This is why American stars were transferable throughout the world. This is why the most famous people on planet Earth were all American stars. You didn&#8217;t know much about their politics at all; you just knew that they were stars. 
That&#8217;s when America was the dominant cultural force on the planet, because it was cool people doing cool things, and they avoided politics. 
And then everything had to be weaponized. The star power had to be weaponized. The entertainment industry had to be weaponized. We had to know every view of all of our stars, and the stars just weren’t stars anymore.
There won&#8217;t be any more Dolly Partons, because the entertainment industry will not allow there to be any more Dolly Partons. 
You must say the words. You must.
If you refuse to say the words, then they will treat you as though you are persona non grata. 
Jelly Roll made his decision. 
We&#8217;ll see how it works out for him.

IMG_6375

The Hidden Political Price Of Fame In America

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Country music is having a moment. For the first time in history, all five of the top songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart are in the country genre.
Ella Langley’s meteoric hit “Choosin’ Texas,” the biggest single of 2026 so far, is still hanging onto the #1 spot as of Monday. It’s followed by Morgan Wallen’s new single, “Been by Now” at #2. In the third spot is Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which she penned for “Toy Story 5.” In the fourth position is a duet between Langley and Wallen, “I Can’t Love You Anymore.” Rounding out the top five is “Boston” by Stella Lefty. 
Langley’s other single, “Be Her,” is in the #9 spot. Non-country songs in the top 10 include Tame Impala and Jennie’s “Dracula” at #6, Olivia Dean’s “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” at #7, Ariana Grande’s “Hate That I Made You Love Me” at #8 and Dean’s “Man I Need” is at #10.
“Choosin’ Texas” made history already by surpassing Whitney Houston&#8217;s &#8220;I Will Always Love You&#8221; and Mariah Carey&#8217;s &#8220;We Belong Together&#8221; as the longest-running non-holiday #1 one songs by female solo artists without male-billed acts, as Variety <a href="https://variety.com/2026/music/news/ella-langley-choosin-texas-ties-whitney-houston-mariah-carey-records-1236816760/">reported</a>. 
Now, many wonder whether Grammy voters will finally recognize country after snubbing the genre for years. Last year, zero country artists received nominations for major categories including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist.
The snub was a surprise for fans and industry experts, especially as country music continues to have massive commercial dominance. After voters rejected country&#8217;s dominance, big stars such as Miranda Lambert, George Strait, and Morgan Wallen skipped the Grammys earlier this year.
&#8220;I really hope it doesn&#8217;t turn into that type of dialogue based around politics Right or Left, because it really is not that; it&#8217;s really about what the voters choose to vote for any given year, and it is cyclical,&#8221; Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. <a href="https://tasteofcountry.com/grammys-responds-country-snub/">said</a> earlier this year of country getting shafted.

Ella Langley

Country Music Takes All Top 5 Billboard Spots For First Time Ever

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There are things that define the artists we love. Wes Anderson has daddy issues and was once friend zoned by a girl who liked heavy eye makeup. Snoop Dogg likes weed. Quentin Tarantino wishes he were Snoop Dogg. Taylor Swift gets her heart broken; at least she did until getting married. Christopher Nolan obsesses over what kind of man he is and what his legacy will be. Also, his wife is probably <a href="https://youtu.be/IpN_wAlYZSs">going to die</a>. Together, they form <a href="https://x.com/DKThomp/status/2080014836709154914">the yin and the yang</a>, the night and the day, the summer and the winter, the chocolate and the peanut butter.
They may seem different. Swift makes works for stadiums and car speakers. Nolan’s productions are for the screen. They’re both fond of IMAX, though. More importantly, both are our bards, our cultural leaders, people who can set off silly firestorms, ones that really shouldn’t be as expansive as they are. Swift has been criticized for being not political enough, then for being too political. Also, she takes lots of private jets. Nolan, well, he made a cinematic version of an ancient poem, and criticisms are all over the place. Some are even legitimate, but the discourse has become absolutely retarded, and not just because I’ve contributed to it.   
If only he’d adapted something from Shakespeare that drew the same sort of fury, a tempest in a teapot, if you will. That’s not why we’re here, though. No, we’re here to discuss how a Millennial former teen country star turned pop sensation and an elder Gen X autist with a passion for insanely complicated filmmaking mirror one another. It’s not just the wealth, the controversies, or the IMAX. It’s the stars themselves.
Swift got her start as a songwriter and, while she has done some covers live, has written 100% of the songs that have appeared on her albums. They are deeply personal and introspective, covering her dating life. They’ve also covered her dating life. Additionally, she’s discussed her dating life.
Nolan, on the other hand, isn’t even a little afraid of covers. See, for example, “The Odyssey.” He does put his own spin on things and does produce 100% original films, but five of his 12 major studio films were based on the concepts of others, six if you include “Memento,” which started as a short story written by his brother and frequent screenwriting collaborator. And while there is romance, none of these films are even remotely personal, unless in a surprise twist it turns out that Nolan is a vigilante or perhaps does magic tricks at children’s birthday parties. We truly have no idea if he and his wife Emma Thomas even go on dates.
Then there is the matter of monoculture. Here, they are more similar, if also entirely different. Swift is the pop diva, producing hit songs for teenage girls and girls who used to be teenagers, but are now more likely thirty-something wine moms or, failing that, cool aunts. More than a few dads, particularly ones with daughters, are also known to jam her tunes. Additionally, famous non-parent Dave Portnoy is an avowed Swiftie. Tay Tay may not be the most complex songwriter, but she knows how to write the same song many different times, attracting legions of fans and having stacks of cash so tall she could fill a complex with them.
When it comes to Nolan, on the other hand, Portnoy is <a href="https://youtu.be/bMcP_a4UuqA?si=XpnOFeYTkWamNvXh&amp;t=90">not really a fan</a>. Regarding “Tenet,” he said everyone involved “should be in jail” and that “Einstein couldn’t follow it.” He does like the Batman movies. Regardless, it’s the complexity of Nolan’s movies that bothers him, and delights Nolan’s fans. His singular approach to writing and directing is to make the same movie over and over again, except each one is a labyrinthine maze of time and space, a veritable cornucopia of misdirection and sweeping artistic landscapes. And while he also stacks cash, his stacks are only in the millions compared to Swift’s billions.
The thing about the yin and the yang is that they come together. And when it comes to focusing on producing original works that delight their respective fanbases, both Swift and Nolan put in the work. These aren’t people who sit in their trailers waiting on others to do things for them. Swift releases surprise albums while on tour for a different album. The Eras Tour featured shows stretching to three hours in length, including one performed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwfK0j83WzA">in a storm</a>. She reinvents herself every few years. Eventually, she’ll sell cake and brownie mixes à la Dolly Parton.
Nolan is famously strict on set. He <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwfK0j83WzA">banned Uggs</a> from filming of “The Odyssey,” because they “weirdly take you out of reality.” (And if there’s one thing to keep focused on when filming a movie about a man fighting sea monsters, it’s reality.) He doesn’t sit in his director’s chair. He tries to keep his actors and crew from <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/christopher-nolan-disputes-chair-ban-phones-cigarettes-1234570631/">using cell phones and smoking</a>. He releases films <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Nolan_filmography">more quickly</a> than many streaming shows release <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/wait-between-tv-seasons-study-1236606660/">new seasons</a>. As with <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl4054352641/">Swift</a>, in another yin-and-yang moment, he gets people to actually <a href="https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/christopher-nolan-is-becoming-one-of-hollywoods-most-dependable-franchises">go to theaters</a>.
The most amazing thing about this dynamic duo is that there is no romantic overlap, and not just because of the age difference. Nolan met his wife in college, and they wed in 1997. Swift’s romantic history is well known and not relevant here other than the fact that she’s never dated an actor from Nolan’s roster. She and Harry Styles did spend some time together, and Styles was in “Dunkirk,” but she hasn’t been linked to anyone else from his roster.
Other than that, though, Taylor Swift and Christopher Nolan are two sides of the same coin, two individuals furiously working to create output that draws people in and keeps them invested. Both are creating works that will outlive them. Both have their detractors. Only one of them <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CJhv0Myn2ow/?img_index=2">likes Uggs</a>. That’s okay, though, because they couldn’t complement one another so well if they were the same.
As to compliments, Nolan has actually praised Swift, albeit for her decision to bypass traditional studios and <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/news/christopher-nolan-taylor-swift-eras-tour-skipping-studios-1235762277/">deal directly</a> with AMC for “The Eras Tour” and not for her music, but still. Because if that’s not a you got peanut butter in my chocolate/you got chocolate in my peanut butter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7oD_oX-Gio">connection</a>, I don’t know what is.
And that is why, dear Hershey marketing executives, you should greenlight this insane campaign for Reese’s. It will defy time, place, and reason altogether. It will appeal to Einstein and to Portnoy. It will send people to the concession stand, whether the movie is “Eras 2: A New Era” or “The Odyssey 2: The Next Voyage.” Trust me, it’s going to be epic.
***
Rich Cromwell is a writer living in Northwest Arkansas. He produces the Cookin&#8217; Up a Story podcast, which you can listen to <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cookin-up-a-story/id1624969096">here</a>. You can also follow him on X: @rcromwell4

Connection

The Metaphysical Yin And Yang Of Christopher Nolan And Taylor Swift

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In case you missed it, pop icon Taylor Swift and NFL star Travis Kelce “<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/video/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-wedding-just-married-message-appears-on-madison-square-garden-video-screen-266153029920">JUST&amp;T</a>” got married at Madison Square Garden. As we anxiously await further details, let’s take a New York minute to credit the woman who made this whole thing happen: her mom.
“You said something to the effect of, like, ‘You’ve gotta start doing something different,’” <a href="https://youtu.be/nMbTZFAkG6U?t=74">Taylor says</a> her mom Andrea Swift suggested in her pre-bridal era. After at least <a href="https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/pictures/taylor-swifts-high-profile-flames-2011163/">15 high-profile breakups</a> (and the hit songs to take the edge off), mom was right to suggest a pivot. And it seems she was right about Travis, too.
In the “mom knows best” move of the century, it was Andrea who first picked up on a potential match when she discovered “this guy” Travis had gone to one of Taylor’s shows, later coming out as a Swiftie on his “New Heights” podcast in July 2023. Andrea knew nothing about the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, so she called up her cousin Robin who was a diehard fan.  
“I go, ‘Tell me about this guy named Travis Kelce,’” <a href="https://people.com/taylor-swift-reveals-who-set-her-up-travis-kelce-11872998">Andrea says</a>. “She goes, ‘Oh my God, he is the nicest guy! And he really loves his mom.’ And I went, ‘Ding, ding, ding, ding.’” 
Taylor had always been a hard pass on sports dudes because she wasn’t an athlete herself. But she soon found common ground with someone who could also hold the attention of a stadium crowd for hours at a time. Mom liked how the first move Travis made toward her daughter involved passing a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it backstage, a gesture Taylor could relate to.
“Then I became obsessed with him and therefore became obsessed with learning about football,” <a href="https://people.com/taylor-swift-reveals-who-set-her-up-travis-kelce-11872998">Taylor remembered</a>. “Greatest surprise of my life.”
Their first date was in <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/taylor-swift-travis-kelces-love-story-timeline/travis-friendship-bracelet-tktk/">late 2023</a>. Nearly three years later, <a href="https://ew.com/taylor-swift-songs-lyrics-about-marriage-weddings-12009859">It’s a love story, baby, just say ‘yes</a>.’
Where would we be if mom hadn’t interrupted Taylor’s dysfunctional relationship cycle using everything she knows about her 30-something daughter? Probably just living the single-ish life at the pop star’s Rhode Island estate with her <a href="https://people.com/taylor-swift-fourth-of-july-party-epic-photos-11988563">#squad</a> of the summer. <a href="https://youtu.be/b1kbLwvqugk?t=48">It’s me, Hi, I’m the problem, it’s me</a> for the millionth year in a row.
Maybe timing is everything, but I’d like to make the case for mom-influenced matchmaking. Yes, I personally know a bunch of happily married couples who laugh about meeting on Tinder. But the original algorithm — your mom — might be the most reliable gauge of character and compatibility we have. It appears that having spot-on maternal instinct and eyes on the back of your head could save modern society.
We used to engage in this style of conscious coupling back in <a href="https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/Foundation/journal/Holiday07/court.cfm">colonial America</a> when relationships weren’t about feelings and love. Instead, marriages were set up by families for the purpose of survival, whether it be for financial or lineage-based reasons. To be honest, eliminating “U up?” texts and unsolicited NSFW pics from dating sounds nice. Just give me a few sturdy logs, a couple sheep, and a sixpence and call me wifey. 
One of the most fascinating elements to contractual marriage is how these relationships can blossom into the <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-of-love/201208/arranged-vs-love-based-marriages-in-the-us-how-different-are-they">love of someone’s life</a>, even in the mid-2020s. Converting total strangers to lovers, outsourced pairings can produce deep dedication, genuine contentment, and happiness. With all that community support, families pool resources to get out of poverty and preserve cultural traditions. The biggest perk is that it’s all <a href="https://worldmetrics.org/arranged-marriage-statistics/">less likely to end in divorce</a>. Isn’t this what we’ve been looking for?
Despite the fact that arranged marriage feels situationship-y for modern times, somewhere along the line, we left mom out of the equation and decided we’re better off infinitely swiping left and complaining to ChatGPT that all the good ones are taken. Let that sink in. Guys, I’m a woman, I do what I want, and I’ve seen enough rom-coms to know I deserve to be shot in the heart with true love and fall head over heels for an LA 10 who just sold his billion-dollar tech company, has shredded abs and charming wit, rescues dogs, loves his family, can fix anything, plays “Jolene” on guitar, and has a heart of gold. 
If my parents had set me up, I might be living down the street, married to “Steve” from that thing (names and careers have been changed to protect the innocent). But maybe then I wouldn’t have spent all those years trying to love future ex-boyfriends into loving me back (a story for another time, over drinks). 
The thought of having no say in choosing my forever person reminds me of “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxO1zuoQtyA">Married At First Sight.</a>” On the reality show, sex therapists and psychologists rigorously match couples with partners they’ll meet for the first time at the altar. Terrifying. But <a href="https://www.mylifetime.com/shows/married-at-first-sight/pages/which-married-at-first-sight-couples-are-still-together">Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner</a> from season one in 2014 are still happily hitched. And that’s after Jamie cried at first sight because she was so unattracted to Doug. 
As “Millionaire Matchmaker” host Patti Stanger told generations of failed daters, our “<a href="https://1982.substack.com/p/how-the-broken-picker-hurt-single">picker</a>” is broken. If you go for unavailable bad boys or overscheduled Pilates Barbies, this may be true for you. So maybe it’s time to let mom do the choosing. Even if it all works out, you’re not obliged to tell her she was right. (She already knows she is.)
The average celebrity marriage lasts just over <a href="https://www.divorcesolicitors.com/celebrity-marriages-last-just-7-4-years-on-average/">seven years</a>, compared to a normie couple’s typical three decades of wedded bliss. Famous <a href="https://marriagefoundation.org.uk/research/celebrity-divorce-first-and-second-marriages/">musicians are most likely to call it quits</a>, with professional athletes faring a little better. Only time will tell if Travis and Taylor are in it for the long haul, but for the moment, the future looks glamorous (as long as no one trips over that reported <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/nfl/news/taylor-swift-forces-travis-to-sign-a-40-page-prenuptial-agreement-viral-prenup-claim-involving-a-20-million-infidelity-clause-sets-social-media-ablaze/articleshow/132208164.cms">$20 million infidelity clause</a>). Still reeling from the festivities, Travis’ mom <a href="https://www.eonline.com/news/1433566/taylor-swift-travis-kelces-wedding-donna-kelce-speaks-out">Donna Kelce</a> called the wedding “magical, man, magical.”
“I write songs about love constantly, so I love the idea of it,” <a href="https://youtu.be/nMbTZFAkG6U?t=105">Taylor</a> said of a real-life commitment. “We’ll see how I end up doing with the actual thing.” Whatever happens, we already preordered the album about it.
***
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards – Show

The Original Matchmaker Still Beats Tinder. Taylor Swift Just Proved It.

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Wedding

Conservative NFL kicker Harrison Butker was reportedly the only Kansas City Chiefs teammate denied an invitation to Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift&#8217;s massive New York City wedding.
Despite being teammates with Kelce since 2017, Butker did not make the guest list of approximately 1,000 people, an NFL source told the Daily Mail. It&#8217;s believed that every other player on the team received an invite, the report noted.
Butker made journalists&#8217; heads spin two years ago when he praised stay-at-home mothers during a commencement speech at Kansas City&#8217;s Benedictine College, a Catholic school.
&#8220;How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career?&#8221; Butker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chiefs-star-chris-jones-defends-harrison-butker-amid-backlash-and-hes-not-alone">said</a> during the commencement speech. &#8220;Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world. But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
“It cannot be overstated that all of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all: homemaker,” he added.
It&#8217;s unclear, however, if Butker&#8217;s remarks had anything to do with the apparent wedding invitation snub. Following the controversy, Kelce actually spoke highly of his kicker, though he said he disagrees with Butker&#8217;s views.
&#8220;I cherish him as a teammate,&#8221; Kelce said. &#8220;He&#8217;s treated friends and family that I&#8217;ve introduced to him with nothing but respect and kindness.&#8221;
&#8220;When it comes down to his views &#8230; those are his,&#8221; the three-time Super Bowl champ added. &#8220;I can&#8217;t say I agree with the majority of it, or just about any of it, outside of just him loving his family and his kids.&#8221;
Kelce and Swift tied the knot on Friday at Madison Square Garden. As noted by The Daily Wire, comedian Adam Sandler served as the officiant at the wedding. Kelce bonded with Sandler while filming “Happy Gilmore 2.”
“The bride and groom’s wedding ceremony looks have been created by Christian Dior Haute Couture,” Swift’s team said in a statement. “Their shoes were custom made by Christian Louboutin and the bride wore Cartier jewelry.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-renewal-starts-at-the-altar?author=Lois+McLatchie+Miller&amp;category=Upstream&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;row=8&amp;rowHeadline=New+on+Upstream&amp;rowType=Article+Carousel&amp;title=American+Renewal+Starts+At+The+Altar">American Renewal Starts At The Altar</a>

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Conservative Chiefs Kicker Reportedly Snubbed From Travis And Taylor’s Wedding

Celebrities

Harrison Butker

Kansas City Chiefs

sports

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce wed Friday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, putting to bed weeks of rumors with star-studded nuptials in the heart of New York City.
The singer and Kansas City Chiefs star tied the knot in front of 1,000 guests, according to People Magazine. The &#8220;Blank Space&#8221; singer and three-time Super Bowl champion were married by comedian Adam Sandler, with whom Kelce bonded while filming the former&#8217;s movie &#8220;Happy Gilmore 2.&#8221; Following the ceremony, the jumbotrons outside the venue displayed the message: &#8220;JUST&amp;T MARRIED!&#8221;
For weeks leading up to the ceremony, rumors swirled about the lavish affair, pictures of which have yet to be released. Swift&#8217;s team <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/save-the-date-rumors-swirl-around-taylor-swifts-highly-anticipated-wedding">filed permits</a> to close the streets around the arena in the days prior to the ceremony, during which time photos showed truckloads of food and decorations being unloaded into the iconic arena.
&#8220;The bride and groom’s wedding ceremony looks have been created by Christian Dior Haute Couture,&#8221; Swift&#8217;s team said in a statement. &#8220;Their shoes were custom made by Christian Louboutin and the bride wore Cartier jewelry.&#8221;
The statement also confirmed that &#8220;Taylor &amp; Travis did not have bridesmaids or groomsmen.&#8221; Swift&#8217;s brother, Austin, served as the singer&#8217;s &#8220;Man of Honor,&#8221; while Jason Kelce — formerly of the Philadelphia Eagles — served as his brother&#8217;s best man.
Swift and Kelce announced their engagement last summer via a joint Instagram post captioned “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” The pair met after Kelce attended Swift’s Eras Tour concert in Kansas City in 2023 and tried to give her a personalized friendship bracelet — the singer&#8217;s hallmark — with his phone number, but wasn’t able to reach her. Kelce later recalled the story on a podcast, which led to the celebrities getting together.
Madison Square Garden was transformed for Friday&#8217;s ceremony, with sources close to the situation telling People they had &#8220;never seen&#8221; the venue &#8220;look so different.&#8221; The wedding decor reportedly included a castle, and Swift was reported to have performed at the ceremony. Swift and Kelce reportedly donated $26 million to charity to mark the occasion of their nuptials. Recipients included Feeding America, the ASPCA, and Dolly Parton&#8217;s Imagination Library.
Swift and Kelce hosted a welcome reception at the Garden on Thursday night for A-list guests, most of whom returned for the main event on Friday. Celebrities spotted entering the Garden or reported to attend included actors Bradley Cooper, Dakota Johnson, and Lena Dunham; late-night host Jimmy Fallon; model Karlie Kloss and her husband, Josh Kushner; and fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger.
The crowd also included a host of country music stars, including Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert, The Chicks, and Brad Paisley.
Notably absent from the ceremony were &#8220;Gossip Girl&#8221; star Blake Lively and her husband, actor Ryan Reynolds. It&#8217;s unclear what caused a rift between Lively and Swift, longtime close friends, though it seems downstream of Lively&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hollywoods-biggest-legal-feud-collapses-after-millions-wasted-on-lawyers?author=Amanda+Harding&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Hollywood%E2%80%99s+Biggest+Legal+Feud+Collapses+After+%E2%80%98Millions%E2%80%99+Wasted+On+Lawyers">contentious legal battle</a> with &#8220;It Ends With Us&#8221; co-star and director Justin Baldoni.
&#8220;It wasn’t one big thing, it was everything adding up,&#8221; a source close to Swift <a href="https://pagesix.com/2026/07/03/entertainment/blake-lively-and-ryan-reynolds-shut-out-of-taylor-swift-travis-kelce-msg-wedding/">told Page Six</a> about the rift. &#8220;By the time Taylor was making decisions about the wedding and who she wanted there, she realized she just didn’t want that kind of energy around something so important and it really was a turning point for her.”

New York Knicks v Cleveland Cavaliers – Game Three

Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce Tie The Knot In Star-Studded NYC Ceremony

Blake Lively

Jason Kelce

Madison Square Garden

new york city

This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
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Two hundred and fifty years after the Declaration of Independence, the nation&#8217;s birthday ought to be one of those rare occasions capable of rising above party politics. Americans disagree about almost everything else; surely they can agree to celebrate the country itself. Instead, even America&#8217;s birthday has become another casualty of polarization.
The Trump administration&#8217;s Freedom 250 celebrations have been practically boycotted by the Left as critics accuse the White House of transforming a once-in-a-generation civic anniversary into a partisan spectacle. Meanwhile, TikTokers moan into their iPhones about living in the “worst country ever” as this anniversary approaches, having never looked overseas to check in on how the North Koreans are getting on.
Where the blame lies in this culture clash not the point. The country simply no longer possesses many institutions that everyone instinctively feels belong to everyone.
Except, perhaps, one.
While politicians argue over who gets to define America, millions of Americans from left to right have been captivated by another national event altogether: Taylor Swift&#8217;s wedding, rumored to take place on the very same weekend.
It is easy to dismiss the frenzy surrounding America&#8217;s biggest pop star as celebrity obsession. But the sheer excitement surrounding her marriage shows that in an age when so much of public life feels fragmented, people are still drawn to one institution that transcends politics — the happy ending to a great American love story.
This happens just as marriage itself has become increasingly rare. Half a century ago, roughly seven in 10 American adults were married. Today, only about half are. For the first time in the nation&#8217;s history, fewer than half of American households are headed by married couples. Marriage has become increasingly concentrated among wealthier, better-educated Americans while declining sharply elsewhere.
That class-bound marriage inequality should concern us all, no matter our politics. Married men and women consistently report higher levels of life satisfaction than their unmarried peers. They are generally less likely to experience chronic loneliness, more likely to enjoy long-term financial stability and better health, and more likely to raise children who flourish educationally and economically. Of course, no statistic guarantees an individual&#8217;s future, and no marriage is immune from hardship, but the pattern is remarkably strong. The decline of marriage is impossible to separate from many of America&#8217;s other challenges.
Headlines frequently warn us about collapsing birth rates, an epidemic of loneliness, declining trust between the sexes, and widening inequality. These are often treated as separate crises requiring separate policy solutions, yet they all intersect with one of America&#8217;s saddest social revolutions: Fewer people are marrying, and fewer children are growing up with married parents.
For decades, popular culture encouraged a generation to believe that personal freedom and self-realization should come before permanent commitment. Marriage was something to postpone, or even eschew, while focusing on more individualistic ambitions.
Few people embodied that cultural moment more than Taylor Swift.
Swift abandoned dreams of Romeo-and-Juliet-style love to her teenage works, and her mid-career music (1989, Reputation) became the soundtrack for millennials navigating fierce feminist independence, ambition, heartbreak and self-discovery. She represented a generation told that careers and glamour and personal growth were life&#8217;s highest priorities. Relationships weren’t expected to last (“We are too busy dancing to get knocked off our feet,” she proclaims in “New Romantics”). But the heartbreak recounted in her “Tortured Poets Department” exposed the truth: Beneath the confident sheen of individualism, she was eventually angered by the men who never committed to her. (“You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? I died on the altar waiting for proof,” from “So Long, London” )
So her traditional wedding — literally, America’s sweetheart marrying the boy on the football team — carries cultural significance beyond celebrity gossip.
Of course, liberal-leaning Swift is hardly one to shout about traditional marriage values. But that&#8217;s what makes her story all the more compelling as it mirrors a broader generational shift. Millennial women who swore they didn’t need a man 10 years ago are no longer simply chasing a corner office or a strut down Fifth Avenue. Increasingly, they are finding the culture of hedonism wanting and looking for permanence: for homes, children, and lifelong commitments. The institution once portrayed as restrictive is becoming aspirational again.
Of course, celebrity comes with privileges that ordinary Americans do not enjoy. Finding a spouse generally becomes more difficult with age, particularly for women, and many people who delayed family life discover that reality too late. Our culture has often been reluctant to acknowledge those trade-offs honestly, preferring to assure young adults that every milestone can be postponed indefinitely without consequence.
Survey after survey finds that young Americans still hope to marry someday. They still dream of building families. They still long for the security of belonging completely to another person. The aspiration hasn&#8217;t been killed off; it just became shamefully hidden.
Trump is right about one thing: America needs renewal. But while governments can organize pomp and pageantry, it takes much more work to rebuild habits of trust, sacrifice, and mutual obligation that sustain a free society. The strongest nations are built around family dinner tables, in neighborhoods, in churches, in civic associations, and, above all, in marriages.
Perhaps that is why the country&#8217;s biggest cultural event this Independence Day is not another political rally or even a state fair. If America wants its next 250 years to be stronger than its last few decades, it won’t need fireworks, but more weddings.
***
Lois McLatchie Miller (<a href="https://x.com/LoisMcLatch">@loismclatch</a>) is a writer and social commentator from Great Britain, focusing on the state of free speech, faith, and family across the globe.

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