Kelsea Ballerini (2023 – present)
Chase Stokes and country singer Kelsea Ballerini confirmed their relationship in January 2023 when Stokes posted an Instagram photo of them attending the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship together at the time. Ballerini reacted to the news in a TikTok video at the time. “I’m about to break up with the internet 5 sure,” she captioned the post.
That same month, Stokes told TMZ that he and Ballerini were “having a good time” but declined to define their relationship. “She’s a sweet girl,” he said. A source told Us Weekly in January 2023 that Stokes and Ballerini weren’t offically dating at the time but had been “flirting back and forth.” “Chase and Kelsea have been flirting back and forth since meeting through friends at the College Football National Championship Game in L.A., but they’re not together,” the insider said. “Something may happen down the line, but it was just innocent on both sides.”
Stokes broke his silence on his relationship with Ballerini in an interview with February 2023 after news she was set to appear as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. “I mean, she’s the best,” he said. “I’m so excited for her and everything happening in her career right now.”
In an interview on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in February 2023, Ballerini revealed that she and Stokes met after she direct messaged him on Instagram following her divorce from her ex-husband, Morgan Evans, in 2022.
“I slid into those DMs,” Ballerini said, adding that she was “not going to get on an app” to meet someone. “He shoots [Outer Banks] in Charleston, and my manager lives there. … He was like, ‘You know who’s really cute, like, when you’re ready? Chase.’ I was like, ‘You’re so right.’” She continued, “I’ve never seen his show, but I just knew of him, and I just swan dove right on in,” Ballerini said. When asked what her first message was to Stokes, Ballerini said, “His handle is ‘@hichasestokes,’ and I said, ‘Hi, Chase Stokes.'”
She continued, “I think I’m finally an adult. I think that just happened over the last couple of years, and I feel like what that means to me is I have opinions. I have a career that is a priority for me, to show up for myself and the people that I’ve aligned with along this journey. And I have aspirations and goals that are tied to no one, and those are all really important things.”
Ballerini also told the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that she wasn’t concerned about Evans seeing photos of her with Stokes. “I’m not married to him anymore,” she said. “I don’t need to care about his feelings anymore. And I mean that with all the respect in the world, but his journey is not mine anymore. I hope he is protected from whatever he needs to be protected from seeing — I hope he has people in his life that help him do that — [but] that is not my job.”
She also told the podcast about how she was “relearning” how to be in a relationship after her divorce. “I’m really relearning a lot about myself and how I show up in a relationship and how I show up for myself,” she said. “And it’s been a really beautiful reawakening.”