Donna Kelce Admits She Put Her Life & Career on Hold for Her Kids: ‘I Did Stand Still for Several Years’
Raising two Super Bowl-winning NFL champions isn’t easy — and it didn’t come without sacrifice. Donna Kelce, mom of famed Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, 34, and retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, 36, opened up about pausing her life and career to raise her kids when they were younger in a vulnerable new interview.
The 71-year-old was honored as one of Glamour’s 2024 Women of the Year (along with other moms of stars like Beyoncé’s mom Tina Knowles, Billie Eilish’s mom Maggie Baird, and Selena Gomez’s mom Mandy Teefey). In an interview with the outlet published Thursday, Donna shared how she decided to “stand still” in her life to give everything to her kids.
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As a commercial banker for a bank in several different states, Donna says she “wanted to get ahead” and “worked really, really hard.”
“I was a major breadwinner in the family,” she told Glamour. “And I think it’s important for kids to see that a woman can do whatever she wants, but I did stand still too.”
Always keeping it real, Donna admitted that she stayed in her 25-year marriage to Ed Kelce because of her kids. “My husband and I knew that our marriage was not working, but we stayed together for the kids,” she said. “Ours was a very friendly relationship. So, we could do that and make sure that their life was normal as possible. But in that one respect, I did stand still for several years until I could move on on my own.”
Moms really are amazing, aren’t they? Who knows if the Kelce brothers would have been as successful as they are today if their parents had split? Donna shared more of her reasoning for this complicated personal decision in a May interview on The Martha Stewart Podcast, where she said they divorced after her sons graduated college.
Donna told SheKnows in an exclusive interview that when the boys were younger, they were always extremely busy — a schedule that would have been nearly impossible to maintain as a single parent or in a coparenting scenario. Jason and Travis were allowed to try out any sport they wanted, as long as they committed to an entire season: “Once it’s over, if you don’t like that team, or if you don’t like that sport, you don’t have to play anymore,” Donna said. “But your team depends on you. You have to show up on time, every day, whether you want to or not.” It was a rule that the Kelce family strictly abided by during their boys’ forays into football, hockey, basketball, soccer, lacrosse, and wrestling.
“We worked together as a team,” she told host Martha Stewart, per PEOPLE, adding that it’s “very, very difficult to raise children on your own.”
“And with as active as they were, how do you do that on your own? So we decided that we would be married throughout the entire time that the kids were in the house, and that’s the way it worked out,” Donna shared.
Now she’s able to just enjoy supporting her sons in their various endeavors (sports games, TV show appearances, their own podcast, and more) while also getting a chance to act herself, as she will appear in Hallmark Channel’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story and make a cameo in Christmas on Call.
When looking back, Donna doesn’t have any rose-colored glasses on, though. “Being a mom is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she admitted. “It’s so much easier to just go to work, but raising children, when they’re totally dependent on you and you’re trying to do the best you can with the limited resources that you have, it’s the most daunting task I’ve ever had to do.”
Before you go, check out these celebrity mothers who love being boy moms.
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