Chase Stokes & Kelsea Ballerini Share New Relationship Update After Messy Split
Chase Stokes and Kelsea Ballerini have been keeping fans guessing about their relationship status in recent months. After more than two years of putting their love in the spotlight, they practically went radio silent on social media about their relationship. Stokes and Ballerini then confirmed they had split, but rumors started swirling quickly that these two might get back together.
So, what’s going on between these two now? The on-again, off-again pair shared a new update on New Year’s Eve. Scroll down for everything we know.
Are Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes still together?
Ballerini and Stokes are now back together as of New Year’s Eve. They both shared posts on Instagram that confirmed their reunion. On her Instagram Story, Ballerini captioned a photo of her with Stokes, “Messy year for the heart, messy year for the outside coming in, messy year for the way it became an out of our hands portrayal of it. But what I’ll say, and all I really care to share indefinitely with my personal life anymore, that I really love love. I believe in it. I believe in him, and I believe in breaking patterns. Now go kiss your person and stop speculating.
Kelsea Ballerini / Instagram
Stokes shared a series of photos with Ballerini on his Instagram grid and wrote, “Something I’ve learned this year: don’t take advantage of the most beautiful things that in 33 years of life are fleeting. Take accountability, learn from mistakes. Lean into love and say it often. 2026 my year of growth, my year of truth. Starting here, starting now. Happy new years.”
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Their reunion comes after a messy breakup months earlier. In November, Stokes addressed the split on his Instagram Story: “I’m sorry for those who believed in us. It is what it is. Onwards and upwards.”
Back on September 14, Ballerini’s rep confirmed that the two had split. However, just two days earlier, Stokes seemed to still be madly in love with The Voice coach when he posted for her 32nd birthday on September 12.
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Along with a photo dump of images, Stokes wrote, “Although you keep saying you’re not excited for 32, id say I’m lookin forward to more of this. happy birthday my love.”
In November, the stars were spotted holding hands in Croatia, where Stokes was filming Season 5 of Outer Banks. That week, Us Weekly confirmed they were back together and “giving their relationship another try.”
However, Stokes hinted that the narrative in the press wasn’t entirely accurate. “Don’t believe the media,” he wrote on his IG Story. “I’m blocked, I did nothing wrong. Sorry. I tried.”
Ballerini also sang about a breakup on her Mount Pleasant EP, which she released on November 14. The song “587” includes lyrics such as, “I heard you covered up your tattoo, it’s probably time I covered mine too, I guess it isn’t just a break between us, it’s a little more space between us,” and, “It used to be a quick flight, by midnight we were kissing in the harbor, now you’ve never felt farther.” She also referenced fights “about missed calls from exes, past life connections, and who’s more impressive.”
On another track, “Emerald City,” she sings about being jealous of a lover’s ex, and many fans have speculated that she wrote the song about Madelyn Cline, Stokes’ ex who he’s been filming Outer Banks with this year.
Did Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes live together?
Ballerini confirmed in an interview with People in 2024 that the two, who met after she slid into his DMs in December 2022, had moved in together.
“Oh, we’re unpacked, baby!” the singer told the outlet, referencing the song “Baggage” off her October 2024 album, Patterns, in which she sings about moving in with a partner, despite bringing “baggage” with her.
She didn’t specify where their home base is. Before they got together, she was living in Nashville, and he was in Charleston, where the couple still spends a lot of time while Stokes films Outer Banks (the show’s final season is due out in 2026).
What happened to Kelsea Ballerini’s marriage?
Prior to her relationship with Stokes, Ballerini was married to country singer Morgan Evans from 2017 to 2022. On the Call Her Daddy podcast in February 2023, Ballerini said she and Evans had begun having issues about a year into their marriage, but their different opinions about wanting to have kids was ultimately the breaking point.
“The moment I think it was over over was I was realizing I wasn’t ready for kids,” she shared. “That’s a fundamental difference. I still don’t know if I want kids at all or not. That was something we had talked about early on and something I was changing on. He was ready. He was like, ‘I don’t want to be an old dad.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m just not there yet. I can’t do this to save us. I can’t do that to myself.'”
She said when she told her then-husband that she consulted a doctor about freezing her eggs for her 30th birthday, things shifted. “It was no longer just, ‘I don’t see this person, I miss this person, I’m alone and lonely,'” she continued. “It was, ‘He wants something out of life and I’m not there.’ Whether I’ll get there or not, I don’t think it’s with this person. I think, internally, in hindsight, that’s where I went, ‘Maybe we need to rethink this.'”
