Kayla Nicole and Travis Kelce in 2018 Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic
Travis Kelce’s ex, Kayla Nicole, hit headlines last week, when she spoke about how his relationship with Taylor Swift had affected her — but now says she regrets being so open.
The sports reporter and influencer, 32, says she initially felt good about how she’d come across on the Unapologetically Angel podcast, but later wished she’d refused to answer some of the more probing questions about her time with Kelce and the subsequent fallout.
“After the podcast came out, I thought that I handled things with grace,” she said on an episode of I Am Athlete Daily which streamed yesterday (Tuesday October 15). “I thought that I answered the questions to the best of my ability. The public had their interpretation of things — didn’t matter to me.”
She added to her co-hosts, “You know my personality: it’s spicy! And that can be perceived in a million different ways.”
On the original podcast, Nicole answered questions about why she and Kelce, 35, had split, as well as how welcome she now felt in the Kansas City Chiefs crowd — but, when some of her answers made headlines, she got a call from her mom which upset her. “My mom calls me though — and it’s those conversations … that’s what matters to me,” she said. “Because she’s offended, she’s hurt by the way people are perceiving her daughter, she’s hurt with the negative headlines and the way that people are spinning it. My mom was like, ‘Maybe next time, we don’t answer those questions,’ and it’s as simple as that. Don’t give it any energy. You don’t have to always respond.”
Joe Scarnici/Getty Images Travis Kelce and Kayla Nicole went through several relationship ups and downs before splitting for good in 2022. The exes dated on and off for five years after Nicole kicked things off by sending him an Instagram DM in 2017. “He had been following me and insta-flirting for a few months,” she […]
Nicole says that she has always taken pride in being honest — but, with her high-profile ex dating one of the most famous women in the world, she also never imagined she’d be under so much scrutiny. “I think it’s in my nature to be myself and to lead with myself and to give all of myself and people don’t deserve that,” she said. “Because it’s not going to always be received in the intent that I mean for it to be received. I don’t have control over public perception. You don’t have to answer every question, not every comment or DM deserves a response. I’m learning that!”
Kelce and Nicole were together for five years from 2017 after hitting it off over Instagram, but broke up several times over the course of their relationship, before finally calling it a day in 2022. Both parties have denied rumors that money was an issue between them, after gossip swirled that Kelce was “cheap”. Nicole refuted this on last week’s podcast, as well as Kelce saying simply in January 2023, “Don’t buy into that s–t!”.
Although Nicole has been fairly kind about Kelce over the years, she says the relationship has put her off dating athletes. “I’ll never say never, but I fully, wholeheartedly believe that I am out of the athlete stage,” she said on the Behind the Likes podcast earlier this year, adding that she would prefer to be with someone who merely liked watching sports. “I would love to date an executive of a record label or a movie producer so that we can go to the sporting events. Let date night be courtside at the Lakers game; that’s my kind of guy.”
Just maybe not a Chiefs game, right?
