Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce may be one of the most famous couples on the planet but when Ayan Broomfield met them in November, she wasn’t nervous.
That’s all thanks to her partner and US tennis Frances Tiafoe, who greeted the A-list duo at a Kansas City Chiefs game like they were old friends.
”I’m really, really lucky to be with someone like Frances because he has this remarkable way of making every situation feel very comfortable,” former NCAA champion Broomfield, 27, tells 9honey Celebrity.
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“He does such a great job of taking a big moment and making it into something that’s comfortable and relaxed, so I really don’t feel that I’m ever overwhelmed,” she adds.
Broomfield reveals Kelce and Swift were “lovely” and down-to-earth, but it was Tiafoe who had everyone feeling at ease as they posed for selfies together.
That casual charm and ability to befriend just about anyone is part of the reason Canadian-born Broomfield fell for him in the first place.
They first got together in 2015, when she was playing tennis and studying at UCLA and Tiafoe had just gone pro.
They’ve been inseparable ever since, even when Broomfield decided to take a step back from the court after the COVID-19 pandemic and a string of injuries.
“I have an amazing partner in Frances. He supports me with everything that I do. He’s always encouraging me to keep thriving,” she says.
But she was nervous when he first asked her to start travelling the world with him as his professional tennis career reaches new heights.
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The world isn’t always kind to the female partners of sports stars (just look at how critics treated Swift when she first went public with her romance with Kelce) and Broomfield didn’t want people to reduce her to being “just” Tiafoe’s girlfriend when she’s an accomplished athlete herself.
In the end, it was tennis legend Roger Federer who swayed her.
He confessed to Broomfield that he owed so much of his own success to wife Mirka Federer, who also used to play professionally, and explained how Broomfield could be an active, integral part of Tiafoe’s career in much the same way.
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After that conversation, she knew she was all in.
Since then, Broomfield has travelled all over the world with Tiafoe, cheering him on from the sidelines while also building her own personal brand.
Today she has a huge social media presence, offering fans a glimpse inside life on tour in the tennis world, including her upcoming trip to the Australian Open, where she’ll be an ambassador for Piper-Heidsieck, Official Champagne of the tournament.
At the same time, Broomfield is committed to giving back to underprivileged kids in the US through her nonprofit The Ayan Broomfield Foundation.
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And just as she supports Tiafoe on the court, he has supported her new projects every step of the way.
“He’s genuinely my best friend,” Broomfield says proudly.
“We just generally feel so blessed and privileged to be in the position that we’re in.”
Growing up in Canada as an aspiring tennis player, Broomfield never dreamed she’d one day have 100,000 social media followers looking to her for inspiration and advice on everything from fashion, to sport, to body image.
It’s a platform she’s grateful to have and one she wants to use to promote the causes that mean the most to her.
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“Even something as small as body image, that’s something that I talk about a lot on my platform because I think it’s important for young girls,” she says.
“I want to make sure that they know that they have an ally in me and they have someone that they can speak to if they wanted to. Just DM me, I’m there to talk about it.”
Those moments when she gets to connect with young women, especially young women of colour with sporting aspirations, make every challenge Broomfield has faced in the last few years worth it.
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