Donna and Ed Kelce waited until future NFL stars Jason and Travis Kelce had graduated college before going their separate ways.
The former couple, who were married for almost 25 years, decided to ‘work together’ to raise their sons under one roof in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
‘[It’s] very, very difficult to raise children on your own,’ Donna said on Wednesday’s episode of The Martha Stewart Podcast.
‘And with as active as they were, how do you do that on your own? So we decided that we would be married throughout the entire time that the kids were in the house, and that’s the way it worked out,’ she went on.
The 71-year-old said they didn’t officially split until ‘after the kids were out of college’ at the nearby University of Cincinnati.
Jason went on to spend his entire 13-year NFL career with the Philadelphia Eagles while Travis has played 11 seasons for the Kansas City Chiefs.
Donna previously revealed she met Ed in the ’70s when she was en route to a date with another man.
The mother-of-two stopped by a bar called Fagan’s in Old Cleveland Flats after work, where her future husband was also grabbing a drink.
‘I was supposed to go out with a guy that night. We were supposed to go to a play, and I never made it. Your dad and I talked forever,’ she told her sons on an episode of their New Heights podcast last year.
It was a good play, too. I really wanted to see it,’ she jokingly added.
Donna also assured Jason, 36, and Travis, 34, that she ‘never’ has regrets about marrying their father.
‘Because I got you two,’ she said. ‘I don’t hate him. We’re friends to this day. We get along great.
‘We were like a tag team with you two. We got to do all sorts of fun things. When one of you had to go out of town, the other person would help with the other child. It was perfect.’
‘[But] that would have been a nightmare with the logistics,’ he explained. ‘Getting kids where they had to be and providing all the support.’
Donna chimed in, ‘Just trying to keep it all together when you’re being a parent. It’s tough.’
