Kelsea Ballerini is laughing off rumors about her relationship with Chase Stokes.
In a since-expired Instagram Story from Tuesday (March 7), the nation star joked about her romance by posting a photograph hand-in-hand on the Outer Banks actor’s lap backstage at Saturday Evening Dwell, quipping, “idk appears staged. in all probability pr.” (Earlier within the week, she had shared one other snap together with her new love from Studio 8H, writing merely, “Hello chase stokes” — a cheeky reference to his Instagram deal with.)
On the March 4 episode of NBC’s late-night sketch sequence, Ballerini carried out two songs — “Blindsided” and “Penthouse” — off her new divorce-centric EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat and its companion quick movie, which inform the singer’s facet of her cut up from ex-husband Morgan Evans.
Within the wake of that divorce, Ballerini revealed in a sit-down with the Name Her Daddy podcast that she met Stokes the old school millennial means: by sliding into his DMs. “I used to be able to open again up,” she mentioned. “I simply felt, why not? I’ve by no means actually dated; I don’t know the way it works. I’m like, ‘Let’s simply put ourselves on the market — let’s simply vibe.’ And it’s been enjoyable.”
For his half, her ex just lately addressed the previous couple’s cut up together with his personal music “Over for You,” which Ballerini referred to as “actually opportunistic” in the identical interview. “I felt actually utilized in that second,” she mentioned on the time. “And once more, his therapeutic journey is his therapeutic journey, I respect that. However publicly exploiting it feels a little bit nasty to me, earlier than it’s last.”
Ballerini has beforehand addressed hypothesis that her romance with the actor is for publicity. The singer talked about the rumor on TikTok by exhibiting a screenshot of a message despatched to gossip account DeuxMoi claiming her latest look with Stokes at a school soccer recreation a “PR play.”
“I do know, I do know. Cease studying, cease trying,” Ballerini says in her TikTok, gesturing to the message. “However what is occurring, guys? What? Let’s not do that, you understand?”
