Donna Kelce and Ed Kelce
While opening up about the end of her marriage to Ed Kelce, Donna Kelce revealed the values she hoped to instill in her children, sons Jason and Travis Kelce.
“I was a commercial banker for a bank in several different states. I wanted to get ahead. I worked really, really hard,” Donna, 71, told Glamour in an interview published on Thursday, October 3. “I was a major breadwinner in the family.”
While recalling her past, Donna explained that it’s “important for kids to see that a woman can do whatever she wants.” The famed NFL mom also admitted that she “did stand still too.”
“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 [as] normal as possible.”
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She continued, “But in that one respect, I did stand still for several years until I could move on on my own.”
Donna and Ed tied the knot in the late ‘70s and welcomed sons Jason and Travis in 1987 and 1989, respectively. After 25 years of marriage, the twosome parted ways following both of their sons’ college graduations. The former couple admitted in the 2023 documentary, Kelce, that they chose to stay together for the sake of their sons.
“If we had split as we probably both would have preferred, that would have been a nightmare with the logistics, getting kids where they had to be and providing all the support,” Ed explained in the film, with Donna adding that “trying to keep it all together when you’re being a parent is tough.”
Travis, 34, admitted in the documentary that he knew Donna and Ed’s “situation was different than other parents.”
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“I would go have sleepovers at other houses and the other parents are staying in the room, and my parents didn’t stay in the same room,” he explained. “I started making those connections when I was in middle school and I realized that they were probably gonna split. But they stayed together for me and Jason’s benefit I believe.”
Despite calling it quits, Donna and Ed still attended many of their sons’ NFL games together. (Travis is a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs while Jason, 36, formerly played center for the Philadelphia Eagles.)
“We try to be at one of the games,” Ed told the Los Angeles Times in February 2023. “Divide and conquer.”