- Kelsea Ballerini is a country singer who will be hosting the 2023 CMT Awards on April 2.
- She confirmed that she’s in a relationship with actor Chase Stokes in Feb. 2023.
- Before dating Chase, she was married to Morgan Evans for four and a half years before filing for divorce in Aug. 2022.
- She released a six-song EP, ‘Rolling Up The Welcome Mat,’ about the breakup.
Kelsea Ballerini will host the CMT Music Awards on April 2 for the third year in a row. She released an EP on her separation from Morgan Evans in February 2023, exactly at the same time that she announced her new relationship with actor Chase Stokes.
Kelsea has been open throughout this chapter about how difficult separating Morgan was. Kelsea filed to divorce in the summer of 2022.
Chase Stokes is a British sportsman.
Fans began speculating that something was wrong with Kelsea and Chase when they appeared in a group photo together during a National Championship football game in January 2023. Days later, Chase shared a photo of Kelsea snuggling up to him at the game, adding to the romance rumors. First, they were photographed packing on the PDA while at the airport.
Kelsea confessed to Chase on the February 22 episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, before furthering her relationship to Chase. "It's all really new to me," she said of the romance.
Kelsea talked about her relationship with him in December 2022. “He shoots [Outer Banks] in Charleston, and my manager lives there. He put the bug in my ears,” she said.
Kelsea and Chase met at a game in New York City on March 2, and Chase was introduced backstage to support Kelsea amidst her Saturday Night Live appearance.
Kelsea poked fun at the buzz on her Instagram Story on March 7, saying, "IDK, seems staged. Perhaps PR." Chase was spotted at several shows when Kelsea went on tour in March 2023. He proudly watched her perform from the side stage.
Chase is well-known as an actor, having appeared in several films, including the Netflix series, Outer Banks, since 2020. He was educated in Annapolis, Maryland, before moving to Georgia and Florida, where he studied as a teenager. He originally wanted to be an ice hockey player before entering acting in 2014.
Morgan Evans is a professional sportsman.
Kelsea met Morgan while co-hosting Australia's Country Music Channel Awards in March of 2016. He proposed that Christmas, and they married a year later in Mexico on December 2, 2017. They often shared romantic moments of their relationship on social media.
Morgan spoke out EXCLUSIVELY to HollywoodLife about how he and Kelsea managed to stay connected despite being separated so often due to their careers. "You just need to prepare ahead, make sure there's something to look forward to, and when you have that time, turn your phone off."
Kelsea posted on Instagram at the time that she is going through a divorce. "This deeply difficult decision is the result of a journey of love, growth, and effort that came to an end." Their divorce was announced three months later, in November.
Kelsea's songs from her Sept. 2022 album Subject To Change referred to the breakup. "When you marry that young, you get a lot of s*** you have to get through." Morgan released his own song about the separation, entitled "Over For You."
When Kelsea released her surprise EP Rolling Up The Welcome Mat in February 2023, she sang, "I think that this is when it's over for me," directly referencing the title track. The EP also included a song called "Blindsided," in which Kelsea sings, "You would've searched the entire world over for you?"
Kelsea recounts the house she and Morgan purchased during their marriage. He walked away with part of the proceeds because of her prenup. "It hurts, rolling up the welcome mat, knowing you got half," Kelsea says on the final song from the album "Leave Me Again."
Kelsea discussed her separation from Morgan during her February 2023 interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, revealing why they split. Kelsea accused Morgan of failing to make an effort to see her when her schedules permitted. However, the breaking point came when Kelsea realized she wasn't ready to have children.
Kelsea said she and Morgan were already having issues at the time of their wedding. “I think he loved me more at 23, and I love me more at 29.’
Kelsea also talked about how she felt when Morgan released 'Over For You,' and why she was so upset. 'He's taking half of the house he didn't pay for,' she said.
Morgan responded to her thoughts with his own Instagram post. He called her comments "sad" and "reality," and advised others not to "mean" to either of them. "She knows I'm not the type to say such things publicly." he said.
Kelsea Ballerini: Who Has Dated Her?
Kelsea had another serious ex-boyfriend before her first two albums, The First Time and Unapologetically. During a call her Daddy interview, Kelsea admitted that she had only had sex with one other person before Morgan, and it was a "negative" experience for her.
Kelsea's 2017 album Unapologetically tells the story of going from a breakup to new love during the time when she got together with Morgan. "I feel like this record is a lot of self discovery and awareness," she told HollywoodLife in 2017.
The first half of the album is about the agony she faced. Perhaps the most heartbreaking song of all is the first one, "Graveyard," in which Kelsea sings: "I don't want to see you drive away in a black sedan or to a new pub so you can take another hopeless, broken girl in a tiny black dress, and lay her heart to rest in peace."
Kelsea has never publicly named the ex in question, but she has admitted to being grateful for that horrible breakup, as well as others before that. "I think breakups are good, I really do," Kelsea said of StyleCaster in 2017. "I think that makes you find yourself again."
