In Taylor Swift’s beach town, every clue becomes a wedding rumor

WESTERLY, R.I. (AP) — When a large tent appeared next door to Taylor Swift’s Watch Hill estate this week, it didn’t take long for speculation about the superstar's impending nuptials to ripple through the affluent New England seaside village — and the internet.

Soon, fans were swapping theories online, photographers were staking out vantage points and residents found themselves fielding questions about a wedding that never was. Or at least, a wedding that seems yet to happen.

The rumors, so far, have proved unfounded. But they offered a glimpse into life in Watch Hill, the Rhode Island beach community in the town of Westerly, close to the Connecticut border, where Swift has owned a home for more than a decade and where curiosity about the singer has become woven into everyday life.

From the nearby lighthouse, visitors craned for a better view of Swift’s mansion, a sprawling white home perched atop a rocky bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Security cameras dotted the property, and a guard called out to visitors who strayed too close.

Wedding planner Nicole Simeral, dressed in black, stood outside the small white chapel across from the massive yellow Ocean House hotel — Swift's neighbor on the beach — waving along cars and buses that slowed and directing traffic to keep moving.

She watched visitors speculate about a wedding she said she knew wasn’t Swift's. She's working a different wedding every weekend in June in that spot. Still, the questions kept coming.

“Is Taylor Swift getting married here? Many, many, many have asked,” Simeral said.

She said there had been “a lot of chitter chatter” as people tried to connect sightings of people who know Swift in local shops to impending nuptials. But she doubted Watch Hill would be practical for a wedding of that scale because of its limited luxury lodging.

The Watch Hill rumors also dovetailed with separate online speculation that Swift and her fiance, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, were planning a celebration at Madison Square Garden, though no details about the pair’s wedding have been released, despite multiple requests for comment to Swift’s spokesperson.

The tent itself, Simeral said, was hardly unusual. “Next weekend, there’ll be another tent just like this.”

For two summers, Westerly Police Department community service officer Nick Quaratella has stood at the entrance to a public path leading to the beach beside Swift’s estate, answering questions from beachgoers and keeping traffic moving.

“They come to the beach, but then they also ask if she’s here or not,” Quaratella said.

He said he can't help but joke around with some fans.

“I’ll say, ‘Oh, did you hear that she moved?’” he said. “And they’ll say, ‘No.’ And I say, ‘Yeah, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson moved in.’ And they’ll go, ‘Oh, really?’ and then they’ll walk away.”

“That's pretty funny,” he concluded.

Over the years, he’s seen plenty of unusual reactions. His coworker once spotted a fan on their knees, bowing toward the entrance gate near the property. Visitors have shouted “I love you, Taylor!” from the roadside. One woman convinced her granddaughter he was Swift’s security guard and posed for a photo with him.

Quaratella has fielded a few questions about the supposed wedding, but not as many as he expected.

“At this point, it’s part of my job,” he said. “It makes me smile. It makes me laugh. I have no problem with it. It makes the day go by.”

Down near a strip of beach boutiques, lifelong resident Lauren Nigrelli said the frenzy surrounding the star has eased since Swift first moved into the neighborhood in 2013. Back then, Nigrelli recalled, fans would drive around in circles by her shop playing Swift’s songs.

“Things have definitely calmed down since then,” she said.

Today, Swift’s presence remains a fixture among local businesses in what she described as a “quaint New England coastal community.” Nigrelli, a Realtor who owns the boutiques Tide and Tide Kids, said she began selling apparel emblazoned with “Holiday House,” the nickname associated with Swift’s mansion, after children began coming into the store asking for it. On Saturday, she was also selling a Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce wedding sticker book.

“I think every shop has something related to her,” Nigrelli said.

On the beach below the mansion, Audrey and John Curtis, a married couple from Connecticut who have been vacationing in Westerly for years, settled into beach chairs and debated the wedding rumors.

“We were just looking up at her house,” Audrey Curtis said, pointing toward the mansion. “She’s not getting married here now, though.”

Curtis said she had heard various theories, including speculation that a wedding might be held at Ocean House. But as she thought through the logistics, she became skeptical.

“Then I was thinking about, ‘How would everybody get here?’” she said. “In New York, you’ve got JFK, you’ve got LaGuardia, and she’s got two penthouses in New York that she combined, so I figured they could obviously have more people there.”

Her husband wasn’t so sure.

“They could lie and say it’s happening there, but it’s happening here,” John Curtis said. “When important people do things, they don’t want people to know.”

Taylor Swift's "Holiday House" sits atop a bluff overlooking Block Island Sound, Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Westerly, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Audrey and John Curtis of Mansfield, Conn., enjoy a beach day a short distance from Taylor Swift's "Holiday House," in background, Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Westerly, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A couple walks by the Ocean House hotel where a temporary event tent prompted speculation of the possibility of Taylor Swift's impending wedding, Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Westerly, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Community service officer Nick Quaratella keeps watch over beach-goers using a public path next to Taylor Swift house, Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Westerly, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A security guard stands watch at Taylor Swift's "Holiday House," Saturday, June 20, 2026, in Westerly, R.I. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

OBBUERGEN, Switzerland (AP) — U.S. Vice President JD Vance landed Sunday in Switzerland to help formally launch negotiations with Iranian leaders over curbing Tehran’s nuclear program and building out the fragile interim deal to end the war in Iran.

The framework was signed last week, and now top U.S. and Iranian negotiators are in a 60-day sprint to reach an agreement on the technical details that hold massive implications for the world economy and global security.

Yet the first days of that two-month period were complicated by the heavy exchange of fire in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah — and by the subsequent announcement by Iran’s military that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that transits a fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas.

Vance had originally been slated to be on the ground at the picturesque Bürgenstock resort near Lucerne on Friday, but his departure from the United States was delayed after fighting escalated in Lebanon and Iranian officials canceled plans to attend the talks.

U.S. Central Command disputed Iran’s claim that it had once again shuttered the strait and said U.S. forces continued to monitor the situation to ensure traffic continues to flow through the waterway. Vance has said that millions of barrels of oil have moved through the strait in recent days.

Vance departed the U.S. just after Iranian state TV said Iran’s negotiators had arrived in Switzerland. Tehran’s negotiators include parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, along with central bank and oil officials.

The U.S. vice president joins special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, who have already been on the ground to begin sifting through the technical details of the nuclear talks.

The talks between the U.S. and Iran will also include Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, as well as Qatari mediators. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Sharif will also meet separately with each delegation from Iran, Switzerland and the United States “to reaffirm Pakistan’s enduring commitment to dialogue and durable peace in the region.”

Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, arrived at Emmen Air Base outside Lucerne just before 6 a.m. local time, according to his office. While Vance said he planned to be in Switzerland for just “a day or two,” leaving much of the detailed negotiations to be spearheaded by Witkoff and Kushner, his role in the talks has heightened scrutiny of the vice president at a time when he’s actively considering a 2028 presidential campaign.

Trump and Vance have come under searing criticism from parts of their own party for the deal, with Republican hard-liners unfavorably likening it to a nuclear agreement signed by the Obama administration that Trump and the GOP have insisted did nothing to actually terminate Iran’s nuclear program.

The agreement signed by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian immediately allows Tehran to sell its oil freely and paves the way for Iran to tap into billions of dollars in assets that are currently frozen. It also calls for Iran to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, believed to be buried under nuclear sites that were targeted in U.S. strikes last summer.

The agreement says commercial vessels can pass through the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days without a charge, but does not preclude future fees imposed by Iran. Trump made his own threat on Saturday to levy U.S. tolls on the strait if there is no deal with Iran in 60 days, insisting in a social media post that the money would be for “services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East.”

The Trump administration has been working to reassure global markets that the Iran war has been merely a blip on oil prices, as Americans have complained the conflict resulted in hiking gasoline prices ahead of peak summer travel months. After the White House announced the deal a week ago, oil futures dropped almost 8% — and markets are expected to closely track the progress of talks when they open for trading on Sunday evening.

Further complicating matters, neither Israel nor Hezbollah is a signatory to the deal between the U.S. and Iran, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep his forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt its attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing from Lebanon.

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in the initial days after the agreement between the U.S. and Iran killed 47 people in Lebanon, as well as four Israeli soldiers.

Kim reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

A convoy with U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrives at the Bürgenstock Resort in Obbuergen, near Lucerne, in Switzerland Sunday, June 21, 2026. (Urs Flueeler/Keystone, Pool Photo via AP)

A convoy with U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrives at the Bürgenstock Resort in Obbuergen, near Lucerne, in Switzerland Sunday, June 21, 2026. (Urs Flueeler/Keystone, Pool Photo via AP)

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi, center, arrives at the Buergenstock resort in Obbuergen, near Lucerne, Switzerland, early Sunday, June 21, 2026. (Urs Flueeler/Keystone, Pool via AP)

Air Force Two, with Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance on board, departs Joint Base Andrews, Md., Saturday, June 20, 2026, en route to Switzerland. (Elizabeth Frantz/Pool Photo via AP)

Vice President JD Vance speaks to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Saturday, June 20, 2026, en route to Switzerland. (Elizabeth Frantz/Pool Photo via AP)