Outer Banks fans are used to treasure hunting, but hunting for context? Rumors have been swirling that Chase Stokes and Kelsea Ballerini may have rekindled their romance. But don’t believe the hype. Ballerini appeared solo at the CMAs on November 20, and the following morning, Stokes got messy on Instagram Stories. “Don’t believe the media,” he wrote in screenshots obtained by TMZ. “I’m blocked, I did nothing wrong. Sorry ❤️. I tried.” He switched fonts (from Modern to Classic) for his next missive, writing, “I’m sorry for those who believed in us. It is what it is. Onwards and upwards.”
How did we get to vague Story posts? Stokes and Ballerini started dating in January 2023 when Ballerini was just two months out of her marriage to Morgan Evans and Stokes was still on the same TV show as his ex Madelyn Cline. The couple announced their breakup in September. “They’re two adults who gave it their all and tried to do everything they could to make it work, but ultimately couldn’t,” sources told People at the time. But then, they were “spotted” by the same dang People holding hands in Croatia earlier this month. This is presumably “the media” Chase Stokes does not want us to believe.
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Ballerini, on the other hand, has been getting her feelings out in song. At the CMAs, she performed “I Sit in Parks,” her song expressing complicated feelings about motherhood, where she is in life, and where she thought she’d be by now. The country version of “I think about it all the time,” basically. Recently, Ballerini thanked her fans for standing by her during all this upheaval. “Thanks for embracing the not-so-glittery parts of me over the last few years,” she said at a Nashville concert. “I know that I’m the luckiest to be able to have all these very big feelings and be like, ‘I need to put it in music, or I will combust.’” It’s definitely a better coping strategy than social media.
