Tragic real reason Taylor Swift KEEPS releasing new music... as insiders make Travis Kelce admission and reveal major reckoning coming

So goes the famous playground nursery rhyme: 'First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby in a carriage.'

But it seems Taylor Swift – a master of releasing multiple versions of a song – has switched up the ditty when it comes to her own life, sandwiching another album release and a potential tour in between the marriage and baby stages, sources have told us.

After saying 'I do' to Travis Kelce, 36, in front of hundreds of celebrity friends at a fully transformed Madison Square Garden back in July, attention has feverishly turned to when they will start a family.

But her latest announcement of a new single, as well as four new songs from last year's The Life of a Showgirl album, seems to have put the brakes on motherhood – well, at least for now.

'She and Travis plan to start a family sooner rather than later. But not right now. Taylor wants to have children but she's like a boxer who can't quit the ring. She can't quit stadiums,' said a source close to the star.

'She doesn't want to put her career on hold right now to start a family. She believes there's still time for that. It doesn't mean she can't have a family and still continue her career. It's that her career is probably at an all-time high. That's why it's her focus right now.'

After all, she's worked tirelessly to become one of the world's most successful artists of all time. Since breaking out in 2006, Swift, also 36, has released 12 official studio albums, alongside multiple re-recorded 'Taylor's Version' albums. 

Particularly in the last six years, new music has come breathlessly fast. Folklore and Evermore both dropped in 2020 followed by Midnights in 2022, The Tortured Poets Department in 2024 and The Life of a Showgirl (TLOAS) a year later.

Then on Tuesday, just under a year since its October 2025 release, she announced The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, telling fans a new single, Patient Zero - which some fans are convinced is about her relationship with ex Joe Alwyn - will drop on Friday. 

'About a year ago, you guys did a truly unfathomable thing,' she wrote on Instagram. 'Something that completely blew my mind… You gave The Life of a Showgirl the biggest first week for an album in history.'

She explained how she 'took a trip to Sweden to celebrate' with her two TLOAS collaborators, Max Martin and Shellback, real name Karl Johan Schuster. She said the aim was to 'reflect and take in how grateful we were for the moment we were in,' but that there was a studio there and 'we did what we do when we feel anything at all: We wrote more songs.'

'I hope you love them, because they were born out of pure gratitude for your exuberance for and celebration of the album we made,' she wrote of the new songs Patient Zero, Pink Clouding, Babylon and Cleveland! - seemingly a reference to her new husband's hometown of Ohio. 

Her excitement was palpable, evidenced by her use of 12 exclamation points to tell fans that she had been 'impatiently waiting' to tell them the news.

Such quick succession of new material is seemingly due to Swift's refusal to take a break. The Daily Mail revealed back in 2024 that she was busy writing new music behind the scenes while on the road with her mammoth Eras Tour. That new music later became TLOAS which went on to become the fastest-selling album in history and spent 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200.

And we're told she never stopped writing in the months since.

As well as the extended version of TLOAS, she is believed to be working on a brand new album, with the singer said to be planning to tour them both in 2027. She is also gearing up to release a documentary, with another industry insider claiming she has 'filmed most of her year.'

'Taylor has been working on Encore and an entirely new album,' they said. 'She has shot videos for two new songs.' On Thursday she revealed a sneak peek at the video for Patient Zero, featuring Colin Farrell and her A-list pal Dakota Johnson. She will drop the video at the MTV VMAs this Sunday where she is set to become the most-awarded artist in the awards' history.

'She has plans to tour with the new album and [TLOAS],' the insider continued. 'She really wants to spend this time enjoying married life but is writing and recording and will combine both albums for a tour in 2027.'

For now, it seems her legion of 'Swifties' are the priority over starting a family.

'One thing she is adamant about is not letting her Swifties down,' said our first insider. 'They will always be her extended family. That's another reason she'll continue doing concerts, but it's doubtful she'll ever plan a tour that's anywhere near as long as her Eras one. She was exhausted by the end and won't put herself through anything like that again.'

Away from work, Swift is a godmother to Jaime King's son Leo and an auntie to Travis' brother Jason Kelce's four children whom he has with his wife, and podcast host, Kylie Kelce. 

Earlier this year sources told the Daily Mail that she felt she had 'no choice' but to 'remove herself' from the position of godmother to Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds' four children after her decade-long friendship with Lively was severed, seemingly beyond repair, when the actress dragged Swift into her legal battle with her It Ends with us co-star Justin Baldoni.

She has talked little of her role as godmother and auntie and has rarely discussed becoming a mother herself.

In fact, she has made no secret of how grating she finds being questioned about having children. In 2019 she shut down a reporter for asking if she was likely to settle down once she hit 30.

'I really don't think that men would be asked this question when they turn 30,' she told German news agency Deutsche Press-Agentur. 'So, I'm not going to answer that now.'

And such speculation has only heightened in the wake of her wedding. 'She and Travis haven't been married for even three months and she's already tired of being asked about babies,' said our first insider.

Security is understandably a major factor, and one she talked candidly about back in 2014, claiming at the time that children were not necessarily on the agenda for her.

'I don't know if I'll have kids,' she told InStyle at the time. 'It's impossible not to picture certain scenarios and how you would try to convince them that they have a normal life when, inevitably, there will be strange men pointing giant cameras at them from the time they are babies.'

But people change and some of her lyrics have certainly suggested that. In Wish List from TLOAS, she sings: 'Have a couple kids, got the whole block lookin' like you.' For his part, Travis seems keen, telling his New Heights podcast back in June: 'I see it in our future, for sure.'

But Kelce's career with the Kansas City Chiefs is also said to be a factor in the timing.

'Travis and his career, whether it is coming to a close or not, will all be determined on how this year ends,' said another insider. 'If he wins the Super Bowl, that might be it. If they don't and he still feels good, he might continue. 

'If he doesn't continue, what career opportunities will he decide to take? Lots of questions still to be answered and once they are, then kids can be added into the equation. 

'They are both very blessed to have a little extra time on their side to figure it all out.'

Many of their friends and family have recently started families including Lena Dunham, who welcomed her first child via a surrogate this year. Meanwhile, Swift's best friend Selena Gomez has been open about wanting to have children with her husband Benny Blanco.

'Taylor thinks she can have it all,' said our first insider. 'And she plans to. At 36 she knows she still has time to start a family. She's in no rush. 

'And if anyone knows how to orchestrate her life, it's Taylor.' 

The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Swift for comment.