Is Taylor Swift’s Cat Worth More Than Travis Kelce? Cat Fansite Confidently Guesstimates Yes
In October 2023 Bloomberg News reported Taylor Swift had gained billionaire status due in large part thanks to the massive success of her Eras tour. While there are probably plenty of people in Swift’s life who have benefitted from her financial status, perhaps none have as much as her cats Olivia Benson, Meredith Grey, and Benjamin Button.
In fact, Cats.com placed Olivia as the third richest pet in the world, due in no small part to her participation in many of Swift’s music videos, ads for Diet Coke, and her very own line of merchandise.
On top of that, the site estimated Olivia’s net worth as $97 million, which surpasses that of Swift’s boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (USA Today reported Kelce has amassed a paltry $40 million).
While Swift makes her money singing and Kelce makes his slamming into other dudes on the football field, Olivia makes hers by just being herself. The Scottish fold was bought by Swift in 2014 and named after the hero of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” (In January 2024, the show’s star Mariska Hargitay told People she named her own cat “Karma” after Swift’s song.)
In October of the same year, Vanity Fair reported that Olivia had joined the world of working women as a shoe model for Keds. She made her music video debut when she appeared alongside Swift in the shoot for “Blank Space.” In 2018 popped up alongside her sister cat Meredith Grey in a DirectTV commercial that also featured Swift.
Also in 2014, Swift launched a line of Olivia and Meredith-themed merch that included stickers, pens, and even earrings. Country Living reported that Compare the Market estimated Olivia’s net worth at $97 million for the first time that August.
Official numbers that pertain to what Olivia might have been compensated for her work (and how) aren’t available, and Cats.com stated that the site analyzed “Instagrams of pets with the most followers, likes, and engagement rates” and used data from the social media platform to determine “how much each of these pets could make per Instagram post to discover who among them were the highest earners, and how much the most influential cats could pull in per post.” So it’s not exactly a scientific estimate of pet net worth.
Humane Hollywood has reported that animals in domestic non-SAG-AFTRA production are paid $1200 a day or $600 per half day; the same rate applies to international productions. In August 2023, animal trainer Kelly Capponcelli told the Washington Post that many of her animals were rented out at a flat rate of $500 a day before the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Of course, those rates might apply to a pet as privileged as Olivia Benson.
In summation: Olivia is definitely rich, but that’s because Swift is rich, too.
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