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Taylor Swift is all smiles as she poses in selfie with Prince William and kids: ‘Happy bday M8’

The Prince of Wales looked delighted as he met with the pop superstar on Friday night

Annabel Nugent
Saturday 22 June 2024 18:32 BST
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Nicola Coughlan and Jonathan Van Ness enjoy Taylor Swift's London Eras Tour

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Taylor Swift has shared a photograph with Prince William and his children at her first Eras Tour show in London.

After much anticipation, the pop superstar kicked off the London leg of her stadium tour at Wembley on Friday night.

The Prince of Wales was amid the starry crowd, having reportedly booked a private box to celebrate his 42nd birthday alongside his children: Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Louis, six.

In a photograph that Swift, 34, shared to Instagram on Saturday, the singer is seen smiling alongside the royals, together with her boyfriend and NFL star Travis Kelce.

“Happy Bday M8!” Swift captioned the post. “London shows are off to a splendid start.” The 14-time Grammy-winner accompanied her caption with the initials GB and US, and a diplomatic handshake.

Tagged in the photo, which was shared with Swift’s 284 million followers, was the official Instagram account for the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Within 30 minutes, the picture had already accumulated nearly 1.7 million likes.

Prince William, who was spotted in the crowd enthusiastically dancing to Swift’s 2014 euphoric bop “Shake It Off”, thanked the musician for a “great evening” in a post shared to the official X/Twitter account for the royal couple.

He was far from the only star in the crowd that night, with an array of VIP guests descending on Wembley to celebrate Swift’s hugely awaited return to the capital.

Bridgerton actor Nicola Coughlan, Queer Eye’s Jonathan Van Ness, and model Cara Delevingne were all spotted in the crowd of approximately 88,000 Swifties.

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Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer was also present at the concert, and snapped a photograph of himself and his wife, Victoria, for social media.

Friday night’s concert was the singer’s first headline show in London in seven years, and the first of eight dates that she will perform at Wembley.

To commemorate the moment, Swift selected London-themed songs for the “acoustic section” of her concert, a 10-minute segment for which the singer plays two surprise songs from her extensive back catalogue.

Beginning on the guitar before moving to the piano, Swift launched into a heart-wrenching medley of “Hits Different”, “Death By a Thousand Cuts”, “Come Back... Be Here”, “Maroon”, and for the first time live, “The Black Dog”.

Both “The Black Dog” and “Come Back... Be Here” are swoony London-inspired ballads, with the former track, taken from her latest album The Tortured Poets Department, inspired by a pub of the same name in Vauxhall and rumoured to be about her brief dalliance with Matty Healy, the British frontman of The 1975.

You can find a full list of all the celebrities spotted at the Eras Tour London, as well as the most up-to-date set list here.

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