Travis Kelce’s ex Kayla Nicole posts ‘open letter,’ addresses backlash

Before Travis Kelce struck up a high profile romance with singer Taylor Swift, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end was in a relationship with sports journalist Kayla Nicole.

Nicole and Kelce starting dating in 2017. The tight end then revealing in a 2023 interview with The Pivot that the two had split.

In addition to her career as a reporter, Nicole has also made a splash on social media as a fashion influencer with over 750,000 followers on Instagram. She also has her own YouTube channel and has developed a fitness brand.

Here’s what to know about Nicole.

How long did Travis Kelce and Kayla Nicole date?

The couple began dating in 2017, one year after Kelce’s reality dating show, “Catching Kelce,” aired on “E!” They made their red carpet debut at the ESPY Awards in July 2018.

Travis Kelce and Kayla Nicole (Allen Berezovsky / FilmMagic)
Kelce later shared in a January 2023 interview on “The Pivot” podcast that he and Nicole dated for five years. Without providing the exact timing surrounding their breakup, he said he was “in the free market right now.”

“I’m out there just enjoying life, focused on my profession,” he added.

At the time, Kelce put to rest rumors that the two had broken up due to him not spending enough money on her.

“Don’t buy into that s—,” he said. “I would never say that I was supporting her. She had a very financially stable life and what she was doing in her career.”

“But you’ve got to be crazy if you’d think I would never helped or gave her a couple thousand to grab some food or she gave me some money to go get some food,” he added. “We were in a relationship for five years. A hundred dollars here, a hundred dollars there wasn’t even thought about.”

She graduated from Pepperdine University in broadcast journalism

Sharing a video on Instagram in 2018 reporting in a Laker’s Jersey from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, Nicole reminded her followers that she’s a 2013 Pepperdine University graduate.

In the caption, she wrote that “hosting is where my heart is” and urged followers to check out her broadcast reel.

Kayla Nicole has been an on-air reporter

Since graduating from Pepperdine, Nicole originally made a name for herself as a sports broadcaster and has reported on the sidelines at both NBA and NFL games.

For Global Grind, she also dabbled in entertainment reporting, at one point interviewing Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler.

Kayla Nicole is now an influencer with her own fitness brand

Nowadays, Nicole utilizes her social media as a fashion model, partnering with brands like Revolve, Savage X Fenty and True Religion, among others.

As a fitness influencer, she’s an ambassador for brands including Alo, Amino Lean, Fabletics and Champs.

Tribe Therepē is Nicole’s own fitness brand, which she told People in October 2023 incorporates elements of therapy with physical exercise.

“It’s focusing on the mental health component of working out, which is really, really important for me and really resonates with me, and really just encouraging people to mentally take care of themselves,” she told the outlet.

What has Kayla Nicole said about her ex’s relationship with Taylor Swift?

Though she hasn’t addressed Swift directly, Nicole has said she’s become the target of harassment about her past relationship, with social media users leaving comments on her Instagram profile including derogatory remarks about her race as well as Kelce’s dating pattern.

On Oct. 9, 2023, Nicole spoke out about this more recent wave of online hate in an “open letter” she shared on Instagram. Sitting before a microphone, Nicole said that her message was for “Black women, specifically.”

“It’s always been really important for me to use my platform not to create division but to elevate and unite women — Black women, specifically,” she says in the video.

The sports journalist never mentions Kelce or Swift in the video, but addresses topics like “backlash,” “embarrassment” and “falling in love.”

Nicole addressed, in part, the challenges of being a Black woman, telling her audience they could be seen as “too much, too provocative, too boisterous, too outspoken” and “not successful enough, not wholesome enough, maybe not even intelligent enough.”

Who has Kayla Nicole dated since Travis Kelce?

Nicole hasn’t revealed any specific names as to who she’s dating these days, but said in a January episode of the “Behind the Likes” podcast that she’s likely moved on from athletes.

“I’ll never say never, but I fully, wholeheartedly believe that I am out of the athlete stage,” she told hosts Winter Blanco and Chy Fontenette.

Nicole continued, “I do think that I am attracted to men in positions of power and I also think that those types of men are attracted to me.”

She noted she’s specifically interested in dating an “executive of a record label” or a “movie producer” to still attend the sporting events without engaging with the athletes.

“Let date night be courtside at the Laker game, that’s my kind of guy,” she added.

Kayla Nicole stays in touch with NFL WAGS

Though her time as a WAG might have come to a close, she still keeps in touch with some people in the sports romance world.

When her ex’s sister-in-law, Kylie Kelce, shared on Instagram March 14 that her dog passed away, Nicole responded with a sweet comment.

“Winnie girl. What a sweet life she lived,” she wrote with a black heart.

Ahead of Super Bowl 58 in February, People reported that Nicole spent a night out with the wives of San Francisco 49ers players, per her social media.

Nicole reportedly stepped out with Stephanie Toilolo, wife of 49ers tight end Levine Toilolo, as well as Claire Kittle, wife of the team’s tight end George Kittle, and Kristin Juszczyk, wife of fullback Kyle Juszczyk.

In September 2023 — the same month Swift first attended a Chiefs games for Kelce — Nicole unfollowed Brittany and Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for the Kansas City team, on Instagram. She confirmed and explained the public move in an October interview with People.

“The reality is I know these people in real life. And so, in real life, I’ve communicated to these people why I’ve had to publicly make the decisions that I made,” she said.

She explained that people compared the breakup between her and Kelce to a light switch that “you turn it on and off and everything goes dead and black and you don’t ever speak to anyone ever again.” However, she said moving on like that hasn’t been the case.

“That’s a lot of history and friendship there, that doesn’t change overnight,” Nicole added. “But publicly, because things are happening so quickly and so publicly, I have to protect myself. That’s really all that is. The love is still there.”