After nearly three years of dating, Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes have officially split. According to a source close to them, the couple "tried to do everything they could to make it happen, but ultimately couldn't."
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Ballerini and Stokes fueled dating rumors when Stokes shared a photo of them at a Georgia vs. TCU game. The pair started seeing each other in late 2022, after Kelsea slid into Stokes' DMs saying, "Hi, Chase Stokes."
She later also revealed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that, about two years before reaching out to Stokes, she had actually seen him in person. "I was on a flight. It was like a 5 am'er. Ungodly hour. And um, I was like getting ready to fall asleep, and there was this young girl who came up to the person sitting behind me." She shared that the girl was "freaking out, just like fangirling." She recalls being so impressed with how Stokes responded.
"I heard him be so lovely to her and give her so much time and attention and intention at like 5 a.m." After peaking behind her and seeing that it was Chase, Kelsea said she "tucked that away" in her mind for later. The two had been in very different phases of life at the time, she shared, but she always remembered him being "a good, good man" from that interaction alone.
Stokes Wishes Ballerini a Happy Birthday Before They Split
In April 2023, the couple went public with their relationship by walking the red carpet at the CMT Awards. Stokes shared that he "never [went] more than three weeks without seeing her." After a messy divorce from Morgan Evans in 2022, Ballerini recalled "having to sort through a lot of baggage" with Stokes. Amidst having busy careers and personal lives, the two were always able to make things work, until recently.
A source close to them shared, "They're two adults who gave it their all and tried to do everything they could to make it work, but ultimately couldn't." The source confirmed the split between Ballerini and Stokes, who dated for about three years. The timing is crazy, since Stokes recently shared a post on Instagram, celebrating Ballerini's 32nd birthday.
The Outer Banks star captioned the post, "although you keep saying you're not excited for 32, id say I'm lookin forward to more of this. happy birthday my love." We're definitely sad to see these two stars part ways, but hope that perhaps this breakup is temporary. Mostly because it seems like they still have a lot of love for each other.
Photo By: CMA
