Travis Kelce and Kayla Nicole dated on and off from 2017 to 2022. Photo: TNS
One name keeps popping up in all the commotion about the Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift relationship: Kayla Nicole.
The 31-year-old sports presenter and social media fitness influencer is Kelce’s ex-girlfriend who apparently, over the last couple of weeks, has been targeted by online trolls pitting her against Swift.
Nicole and Kelce, who turned 34 last week, dated on and off from 2017 to 2022 after he broke up with his girlfriend Maya Benberry – the winner of his TV reality show, Catching Kelce.
On Monday (Oct 9), Nicole posted a video on Instagram about the “backlash and embarrassment” of a “demoralising and antiquated narrative,” adding that the “rage of the world is loud.”
She addressed her nearly four-minute statement to Black women specifically, noting that what has happened to her “isn’t just about me.”
“Dear Black girl, they may call you a traitor for falling in love,” she said. “You’ll hope the ones closest will protect you, but you will quickly find out that people don’t protect what they don’t value.
“They’ll say you’re too much, too provocative, too boisterous, too outspoken – and, in the same breath, tell you you’re not enough. Not successful enough, not wholesome enough, maybe not even intelligent enough.
“They’ll say you deserve the backlash and embarrassment, because of your Blackness you should have known better. They’ll even try to tie your value to your net worth.”
Since Kelce and Swift, 33, made headlines when the singer showed up at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium Sept 24, people have scoured Nicole’s social media for hidden messages. They’ve stirred up gossip by noting who she has recently unfollowed on Instagram.
They have speculated about whether she is still friends with Brittany Mahomes, wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who sat with Swift and a gaggle of her Hollywood friends at MetLife Stadium when the Chiefs beat the New York Jets last week.
In 2019, Nicole and Kelce joined Brittany and Patrick and a couple of other Chiefs and their significant others on a vacation to Turks and Caicos Islands.
Nicole came to Kansas City in late August to help Brittany Mahomes, the co-owner of the Kansas City Current soccer team, celebrate her birthday.
“Since news of Kelce’s alleged romance with the Anti-Hero singer broke, Nicole’s followers noted that Swifties – as Swift’s fans are known – were allegedly pitting the women against each other, and leaving ‘immature and unnecessary comments’ including Taylor Swift GIFs under her Instagram posts,” according to Britain’s The Independent.
Nicole encouraged her followers not to “participate in this tumultuous, often one-sided journey.”
This isn’t the first time Nicole has used social media to tackle something offensive. In 2022, she blasted former Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton for comments he made about women on a sports podcast. Among them, he took issue with women who say they’re the boss in a relationship.
“No, baby. But you can’t cook,” Newton said. “You don’t know when to be quiet. You don’t know how to allow a man to lead.”
“The obsession with women being able to cook is truly comical,” Nicole wrote on Twitter, now X, under his comment. “Cause it’s like if your palate is so superior date a Michelin star chef then bozo. Pretty sure the average woman is capable of making edible food. How do you think she’s survived thus far?”
In her statement Monday, she urged anyone struggling with negativity to get help from therapy, prayer or community.
“Preserve your heart,” she said, “even when they try to quantify your character and test your boundaries.” – The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service
