{"id":676088,"date":"2026-07-06T04:35:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676088\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T04:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T04:35:26","slug":"taylor-swifts-favourite-teacher-and-one-time-security-guard-dies-on-her-wedding-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/676088\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift\u2019s favourite teacher and one-time security guard dies on her wedding day"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Taylor Swift<\/a>\u2019s favourite teacher and one-time security guard died on the day of her wedding,<\/a> it has emerged.<\/p>\n

Kirk Schwabe, 69, died of cancer on 3 July, the same day the pop star married Travis Kelce<\/a> at Madison Square Garden in New York City.<\/p>\n

His family confirmed the news to The Telegraph<\/a>, not long after he gave his first and only interview to the publication ahead of the ceremony<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Schwabe\u2019s wife, Jane, said he treated Swift \u201clike he did his daughters\u201d, while his daughter Jane said: \u201cMy dad had a remarkable way of making people feel seen, valued and protected. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you were family, one of his students, or someone like Taylor whose path crossed his, he cared deeply about people. That\u2019s the legacy he leaves behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Independent has contacted Swift\u2019s representative for comment.<\/p>\n

\"SwiftSwift pictured in 2009, the year Schwabe became her security guard (Getty)<\/p>\n

Schwabe was a Chicago police officer before becoming a criminal justice teacher at Hendersonville high School in Nashville, where Swift attended between 2004 to 2006. <\/p>\n

In 2009, he quit his job to work as Swift\u2019s security guard at the request of her father, just as her career was beginning to take off.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Telegraph<\/a> in the days leading up to the pop star\u2019s wedding, Schwabe recalled telling her she was a \u201csuperstar\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not fun and games no more. You are it. Everything keeps going up and up and up, and the sky\u2019s the limit for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He joked that she was \u201cnot the fastest dresser\u201d and much of his job entailed waiting for her during costume changes.<\/p>\n

Schwabe quit his role a few years later after feeling burnt out: \u201cI said, \u2018Taylor, look, I\u2019m burnt out, I can\u2019t keep up. I think you\u2019re better getting a professional security guard to come and protect you,\u2019\u201d he recalled. <\/p>\n

\"SchwabeSchwabe recalled teaching Swift before she went on to become the world\u2019s biggest pop star (Getty)<\/p>\n

Swift once described Schwabe\u2019s criminal justice class as the \u201cmost exciting\u201d she ever took, seemingly incorporating those lessons into songs such as \u201cNo Body, No Crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

She also paid tribute to her former teacher when making a cameo in the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine\u2019s Day, naming her character\u2019s teacher Mr Schwabe. <\/p>\n

In his interview, having been diagnosed with terminal cancer, Schwabe recalled stepping in to stop fellow students from picking on Swift after receiving a call from her father. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was taken care of that day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Schwabe is survived by his wife, Jane, and their daughters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-676088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}