Donna Kelce on How Fame Has Impacted Sons Travis and Jason’s Lives: ‘We Can’t Go Anywhere, Really’

Donna Kelce is pondering the price of fame.

The 71-year-old mom of football stars Travis Kelce and Jason Kelce opened up about raising famous children, navigating fame, and being a grandmother as part of Glamour’s 2024 Women of the Year: The Moms issue, published on Thursday, Oct. 3.

While discussing fame in the group interview — with Beyoncé and Solange’s mom Tina Knowles, 70; Billie Eilish and Finneas’ mom Maggie Baird, 65; and Selena Gomez and Gracie Teefey’s mom Mandy Teefey, 48 — Donna was asked if she misses doing anything with her two boys.

“We can’t go anywhere, really,” Donna said of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis, 34, and former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason, 36.

“If we want to do something, you have to rent out the restaurant or the movie theater or whatever,” she explained. “I do get to sneak away every once in a while, and we go to places that nobody knows where they are.”

Donna added that while “I’m grateful people know who I am and most of them are very, very respectful” that she doesn’t take unauthorized pictures lightly. “It’s just when somebody tries to take a picture of you in the bathroom, ‘I’m like, whoa.’ “

Mama Kelce previously elaborated in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE in September about being in the spotlight.

“Everybody knows everything about our family. What they’re doing and who they’re dating and this and that,” she told PEOPLE, nodding to Travis’ romance with Taylor Swift, 34, before emphasizing that she’s “having the time of my life now, more than ever.”

@glamourmag Would you recognize #DonnaKelce or #MandyTeefey walking down the street? Watch as these #GlamourWOTY honorees talk about running into fans in public. See the full video at the link in bio. #TinaKnowles #MaggieBaird ♬ original sound – Glamour

The retired banking executive and a grandmother of three initially made headlines around the world in February 2023, when both of her NFL sons competed against each other in Super Bowl LVII a.k.a the Kelce Bowl.

“It’s been a ride. That’s for sure,” Donna told PEOPLE for the magazine’s 25 Most Intriguing People of the Year list in 2023. “Sometimes I feel I’m on some kind of a different planet. I’m like, ‘What has my life become?’ ”

Donna recently represented the Kelces at the red carpet premiere of Grotesquerie, which Travis has a role in. She will also appear on the small screen as herself in two upcoming Hallmark movies: Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story and Christmas on Call.

In the Glamour cover story, Donna discussed how she tries to keep Travis and Jason, who shares three daughters with wife Kylie Kelce, both grounded despite their skyrocketing fame.

“You just bring things up that they did when they were children to just show them that they’re like everybody else — how many broken windows there were, how many times I had a call from the neighbor,” she said.

“They weren’t mean children or bad children; it’s just that they were very rambunctious,” Donna continued. “I think it’s just bringing them back to their childhood — what they’re most grateful for and where they were able to have a platform to grow.

via