Kelsea Ballerini Opens Up About Respecting ‘Truth-Telling’ With Boyfriend Chase Stokes

Kelsea Ballerini is sharing what it’s like navigating a post-divorce relationship in the public eye.

The superstar, ahead of dropping her newest album, Patterns, dropped by Sunday Today With Willie Geist, and in a preview clip shared exclusively with Billboard, Ballerini says that dating actor Chase Stokes as a celebrity comes with a lot of “trial and error,” adding, “I’m not used to the interest in me as a person, as much as I have been warming up to the last couple of years. For a long time, I was used to being the girl who sings ‘Peter Pan’ to people. I love that, I love that role. As far as the floodgates that Welcome Mat opened up as far as human me, girl me, is different now. I’m still getting my footing on how I share things and how I share and my relationship and all that stuff. It’s not normal so I think it’s fair enough that it’s an ebb and a flow.”

Ballerini and Stokes went public with their romance in Feb. 2023 and since then they’ve walked a number of red carpets together and frequently chronicled their love affair on their socials. That same month, Ballerini dropped her Rolling Up the Welcome Mat EP, in which she detailed the devastation of her divorce from fellow country star Morgan Evans. 

“I think the beautiful thing about being with an artist — in a different field but an artist — is that also equates to being with a truth-teller,” she told Geist of dating the Outer Banks star. “When I got into this relationship, I hadn’t put out Welcome Mat to him. I remember I sent that EP to him and I just said, ‘Hey, you’re going to ask eventually. So, I’m just going to go ahead and give this to you.’ He lifted that record up and supported it and stood side-stage the whole time. That takes someone who really celebrates truth-telling, and believes in the person that’s doing it.”

Watch the exclusive clip with Ballerini below, and the full sit-down airs this Sunday (Oct. 27) on NBC’s Sunday Today With Willie Geist.