Kylie Kelce vs Dwyane Wade

This a fun, low stakes one-sided celebrity beef that I hope we can all be normal about. And it’s not really a beef, but it brings up an interesting kind of etiquette conversation, which is what gossip can do, and why it says more about us than the people we’re actually gossiping about.

On the latest episode of her podcast, Not Gonna Lie, Kylie and her friends, who were bridesmaids at her wedding, are talking about the wedding and Kylie reveals that she’s been holding a grudge from that day – via PEOPLE:

“I have a long-standing beef with Dwyane Wade, that — you guessed it — Dwyane Wade actually knows nothing about. We were going down for the wedding. Right? I am in a wedding dress with a veil on the back of my head,” Kylie recalled. “We have all four bridesmaids and the wedding planner, Sarah, in the elevator with us. And we just so happen to get on the elevator with Dwyane Wade. “Here's the problem that I have with that. He didn't say a goddamn word, which is crazy,” Kylie said. “There is a bride and her bridesmaids in the f-cking elevator with you. You are in an enclosed space. And then he didn't say a word.” 

Kylie’s bridesmaid Amber quipped, “He probably was, like, regretting every step he took to get on that elevator. He was probably sitting there like, ‘Why didn't I just let the door close?’”

To which Kylie replied: “That s— blew my mind.”

Is Kylie right to have been annoyed – and to hold onto it for years? When we are in an enclosed space with a bride, are we obligated to acknowledge that she’s about to get married?

OK I know I said this was supposed to be fun, but it’s important to note that as a Black man moving through the United States, in a small space with a white woman and all her friends, it may be that in Dwyane’s lived experience it was better for him to mind his business and get in and out of there as peacefully and unremarkably as possible.

I do not have the same lived experience as Dwyane, but I would have made the same decision, because I have stranger danger. My default behaviour in public is to not engage with anyone. Let me just get from point A to B without eye or verbal contact with people I don’t know. Virtually every person in my life can confirm this, including my husband, who routinely chides me for keeping my eyes on the sidewalk when we’re walking around our neighbourhood, which is why I know very few of our neighbours. He, on the other hand, is basically the block welcoming committee, the “good morning” guy who greets everyone while I shrink into my shell.

Totally get it though that a bride lives her wedding day like she’s the main character – and she is, in her life, but I don’t understand why she has to be the main character in everyone’s life. Kylie Kelce is speaking with bridal main character attitude here, LOL, and clearly it has a long shelf-life. In my opinion, it was not uncourteous of Dwyane that he did not allow Bride Kylie to be the main character in that moment of his life. And also, as a celebrity himself, he could have also been wary that…well… had he given any energy to a main character bride that day, it may have resulted in him being asked for photos, for a video, for some kind of participation on her special day. Let’s not pretend that regular degulars don’t do this when famous people are around. Dwyane, clearly, thought that Kylie was a regular degular – and this was in 2018, well before she became a household name by association to Taylor Swift. Sorry, no disrespect, but I work in pop culture and I had no idea who Kylie was eight years ago. In that elevator that day, Dwyane Wade was by far the bigger name.

So that’s my take on this beef, though I do want to credit Kylie for her performance, for how she performed her indignation and sold this grudge. She’s a podcast host, her business is entertainment. And she served up the entertainment (because I’m not convinced she actually cares all that much). In my world we call this “good TV” even though this isn’t technically TV, the point is that she understands that the job is to entertain, and she has.

And she’s also set up … well… a face-to-face confrontation. This is basically and invitation to Dwyane to come on her show and work it out. He’ll probably hear about it by the end of the day.

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