Taylor Swift is shown on Late Night with Seth Meyers, while Charles Barkley and Travis Kelce are shown on ESPN.
(Image credit: NBC/ESPN)
One of the most fascinating aspects of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding was finding out who was there to see them get “JUST&T MARRIED” and who didn’t make the cut. While some people apparently deleted the invitation thinking it was spam, Charles Barkley may be one of the very few people who knew he was invited but knowingly chose not to go. The former NBA star was asked why he skipped the nuptials, and he gave a surprisingly honest answer.
Charles Barkley turned to broadcasting after retiring in 2000 from a 16-year career in the NBA, and he remains a notable voice on basketball and a variety of topics. The hosts of Pardon My Take got to pick King Charles’ brain on some of those topics — including why in the world he would choose to miss the celebrity wedding of the year. For Barkley, the choice was simple, as he said:
It was apparently an easy decision for the two-time gold medal Olympian, because apparently as a rule he doesn’t go to weddings. (The same is true of funerals, but for different reasons.) Charles Barkley’s absence wasn’t a sign of disrespect to Travis Kelce, though, and he reiterated how much he likes both the Chiefs tight end and his brother, saying:
The King has spoken! Some Swifties might bristle at the sports analyst referring to Taylor Swift’s wedding as a “zoo,” but let’s be real — even the invitation process was complicated. One guest of the wedding described a text with a multi-factor authentication, then NDAs to sign, then follow-up invitations that gave incrementally more information about the event as it got closer.
Add to that the staggered entrances of 1,000 guests being driven to Madison Square Garden and rules they had to follow, like no gifts or cell phones, and I think Charles Barkley probably has an accurate understanding of what went down. Even veteran NYPD cops had never seen anything like it.
It wasn’t just Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce who Charles Barkley said “no” to, however. His no-weddings rule goes for everybody, because he wants the bride to have “all the shine” on her big day. I can see Barkley’s presence causing a ruckus at a regular wedding, but he probably wouldn’t have needed to worry about that at the Kelce-Swift nuptials, considering you had people like Brad Pitt milling around alongside Kelce’s high school teachers.
Charles Barkley said a wedding day belongs to the bride, and if his presence is what’s going to make or break the event for her, he said — in true Barkley fashion — she needs to get a life. I’m sure Taylor Swift took the rejection in stride, because you can’t expect anything less than the honest truth from Barkley.
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