Kelsea Ballerini has a new man in her life.
On the heels of her divorce from fellow country singer Morgan Evans last year, Kelsea Ballerini sat down with Alexandra Cooper on the very popular Call Her Daddy podcast to open up about the details she’s been pretty quiet about until recently.
She spilled a lot of the details from her side of the marriage, even telling Alex about some of their fights, notably over their timeline of having kids.
While Morgan did release a song called “Over For You,” which says a lot about his perspective of their marriage, he’s stayed pretty quiet otherwise in terms of details, issuing this statement in light of Kelsea’s appearance on the podcast:
And in the last couple months, rumors have started to swirl linking Kelsea to Outer Banks star Chase Stokes.
They had been spotted out in Nashville together, and she actually confirmed to Alex that they were officially an item, telling her she was the one who slid into Chase’s DM’s on Instagram months after her divorce was finalized:
“I think I grieved a lot of the marriage in the marriage, and so I think I was ready to open back up. I felt, ‘Why not? I’ve never really dated I don’t know how it works. Let’s just put ourselves out there, let’s just vibe.’
I slid into his DMs. I was just like, I’m not gonna get on an app. And honestly, he shoots in Charleston, and my manager lives there, and he like, put the bug in my ear. He’s like, ‘You know who’s really cute when you’re ready, it’s Chase.’
I was like, ‘You’re so right.’ And I’ve never seen the show, but I just knew of him. And so, I followed him, and he followed me, and I just swan dove right on in.”
When Alex asked if she was concerned at all for Morgan’s feelings when photos started circulating, she explained that she doesn’t “need to care about his feelings anymore”:
“I’m not married to him anymore, and I don’t need to care about his feelings anymore. And I mean that with all the respect in the world, but his journey is not mine anymore.
And so, I hope that he is protected from whatever he needs to be protected from seeing. I hope he has people in his life that help him do that, that is not my job.”
She also added that this is all new to her, and she does want to be respectful towards Morgan as much as she can since it’s all still clearly very fresh for both of them:
“I’m not exploiting what I am or am not doing, because I do want to be respectful. And also, it’s new.
Everything’s new for me — dating, being photographed with someone, like, it’s all really new, and I’m tiptoeing. And I’m happy and I’m really re-learning a lot about myself and how I show up in a relationship and how I show up for myself.
It’s been a really beautiful re-awakening.”
Kelsea just dropped a new Rolling Up The Welcome Mat EP on Valentine’s Day, as well, where she actually singlehandedly responds to Morgan’s aforementioned heartbreaking ballad, “Over For You,” in a series of songs about their crumbling marriage, in addition to addressing a multitude of other issues they had going on behind closed doors.
Chase shared a photo on his Instagram stories where the pair looks pretty cozy in honor of the EP release, saying:
“So proud of you, your heart & your beautiful soul. Congrats Kels.
‘Rolling Up The Welcome Mat’ now streaming.”
The full podcast episode is now available on Spotify, and you can check out the trailer here:
