Walking into stadiums while sipping from red solo cups with her celebrity crew and future mother-in-law Donna Kelce, Taylor Swift once risked grabbing the spotlight from her boyfriend’s NFL games.

However, Sunday had a different tone, as the pop icon was discreetly escorted behind what seemed to be a bullet-resistant screen into Arrowhead Stadium to watch Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs battle the Philadelphia Eagles.

Video showed security guards quickly unfolding the giant protective barrier to ensure that Swift, 35, could slip into Arrowhead unseen.

This sighting, along with the lack of images showing Swift in her regular private suite enthusiasm, fueled rampant speculation. The prevailing question: Was she concealing a baby bump?

It is understood that even the Chiefs players were warned in advance that there would be heightened security at the game, but were offered no explanation why.

Now, insiders have told the Daily Mail the full story.

Taylor Swift broke from tradition to sneak into the Arrowhead Stadium undetected on Sunday night (pictured in September 2024)

The pop megastar was shielded by what is believed to have been a bullet-resistant screen

One insider pointed to increased tensions in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder, just days before the game.

‘If someone is going to do a tit-for-tat for Charlie Kirk, Taylor is a pretty logical choice,’ the insider said. ‘They used the screen to keep her safe. They have used that screen before, but usually it is for the President or someone like that, not a celebrity. But this was a weird week.’

31-year-old conservative activist Kirk was assassinated by a gunman last Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University.

Meanwhile, Swift is a known liberal who has backed the last two Democratic Party candidates, in the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.

Kirk even spoke about Swift a fornight before his death, remarking on her recent engagement to tight end Kelce, 35. 

‘This is something that I hope will make Taylor Swift more conservative,’ he said, before adding that the singer should ‘submit’ to her future husband.

Kirk also controversially said the burly sporstman could ‘de-radicalize’ Swift from being ‘a cat lady to a JD Vance supporter.’

For her part, Swift is said to have been left in shock at Kirk’s very public assassination. And it is that trauma, coupled with her ongoing issues of stalking, that has meant those around her are not ‘taking any chances’ when it comes to safety.

‘Taylor had concerns because she has received hate mail from the same kinds of extreme groups,’ said another insider. ‘Charlie’s murder, and the weirdness with her stalkers, is why she will take serious measures to increase her security and only a core group of people know what her schedule is.

‘She was targeted by far-right extremist groups after going against Trump [by endorsing Kamala Harris] and there are legitimate concerns about some of the threats that have been made. They aren’t taking any chances.’

Swift is usually pictured cheering on from her suite, seen here with Brittany Mahomes  

Sources have claimed her mysterious entrance was a security measure after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk (pictured) in Utah last week

In August last year, Swift found herself the target of a foiled terror attack in Vienna, Austria, and was forced to cancel three of her ‘Eras’ world tour dates in the capital. She later said the incident filled her with a ‘new sense of fear.’

It came days after three young girls were tragically knifed to death while at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, England.

Swift has also found herself the target of multiple male stalkers.

Most recently, she was granted a restraining order against Colorado man Jason Brain Wagner, who sent hundreds of emails and showed up at Swift’s in Los Angeles multiple times.

Other stalkers have sickeningly threatened her with rape and murder over the years, with some even trying to break into her New York residence.

The incidents have understandably left Swift on high alert, with the singer previously revealing that she always carries QuikClot – army grade bandage dressing – ‘for gunshot or stab wounds.’

‘You get enough stalkers trying to break into your house and you kind of start prepping for bad things,’ she said in 2019.

‘Charlie’s murder, and the weirdness with the stalker, is why she will take serious measures to increase her security and only a core group of people know what her schedule is,’ said the insider (pictured with Donna Kelce at a game in November)

That fear of violence is shared by her 73-year-old father Scott Swift, who said he was so ‘terrified’ about his daughter’s safety after throw her support behind two Democratic candidates in her home state of Tennessee in late 2018, that he ‘went out and bought armored cars.’

Swift endorsed Harris back in September last year, prompting Trump to hit back saying he ‘was not a Taylor fan’ and declaring ‘she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.’

The president later went so far as to say that he ‘hates’ her. 

With an increasingly divisive political landscape and with millions following her every move, Swift ‘just wants to be safe’, her friends say.

‘She took these precautions because the world right now is totally screwed up and she not only wants to protect herself but everyone that she surrounds herself with,’ another insider said of the bulletproof screen.

‘To take these precautions now is nothing new, she always has security by her side, and she isn’t going to start taking any chances now.’