Dating someone as famous as Taylor Swift is hard—and so is having previously dated someone who is dating Taylor Swift, apparently.
Travis Kelce's ex-girlfriend, sports reporter and influencer Kayla Nicole, is still dealing with how hard that can be now, about two and half years after they ended their relationship and more than a year since the beginning of his relationship with Swift.
Nicole is competing on season 3 of Fox's reality series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test and a new preview for the upcoming season includes a clip of her opening up about her difficult split from the NFL player.
"Going through a public breakup, it's been overwhelming," she says in voice over played over footage of her tearing up. In a later clip, when Nicole is asked to name her famous ex during a conversation with some of her costars, she whispers, "Travis Kelce."
Kelce and Nicole dated on and off for five years before splitting for good in May 2022. Even though a full year passed before Kelce and Swift began dating in the summer of 2023, Nicole says she's still been bombarded with negativity online since Kelce and Swift went public with their relationship.
"I would be lying if I said that that level of hate and just, like, online chaos didn't impact me, it does. Even to this day," Nicole explained in an interview on the Unapologetically Angel podcast in October (per People). "You can go to my most recent post and it will be people debating each other why I am worthless and I'll never be a talented person and I have no career."
When host Angel Reese asked for her theories about what might be the reason for the negativity, Nicole chalked it up to the frenzy that comes with Swift's level of fame—which she admitted has impacted the way she and Kelce interact when their paths cross now.
"We've seen each other in public spaces but I think that we're both aware of the nature of his new situation that there's just no room to communicate or acknowledge each other publicly without it being spun into something crazy. So we just keep it moving," she explained.