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TRAVIS Kelce had his fair share of relationships before settling down to date Taylor Swift.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end and Kayla Nicole were together for almost five years - here's everything you need to know about their breakup.
Why did Kayla Nicole and Travis Kelce split?
Kayla Nicole and Travis Kelce had been in an on-again, off-again relationship since getting together in 2017.
The couple split in 2022 - with many rumors circulating around the reason why.
One rumor was that Travis was "cheap" - insisting that they would go 50/50 on food, trips, and more.
The former couple had refuted these rumors.
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However, the model did post a TikTok after the split, which has now been taken down.
It said: "You’re not stupid Kayla. No, I am actually. Thought I’d get wifed after dating for 5 year. That’s 1,825 days.”
This could potentially be one of the factors, but the ex-couple has not shared their official reasoning behind the breakup.
Kayla previously revealed how she and Travis first started their romance after months of flirting via Instagram.
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She said: “He had been following me and Insta-flirting for a few months.
“All double taps and no DM.
"Soooo after a little liquid courage and a pep talk from @iqueenb (something along the lines of ‘WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR’) I DM’d him on New Years."
Travis then spoke about what sparked their relationship in his 2022 interview with E! News.
He explained: “I didn’t just go through every single pic and just start ‘liking’ it immediately.
“It was over the course of a month’s span, just following her and ‘liking’ the pictures that she was posting and watching all of her Stories when Stories had first started coming out.
"I was just stalking her, and then, finally on New Year’s, she gave in. And, you know, New Year, new me.
"She just shot her shot, jumped in my DMs, and the rest is history.”
What have the pair said about the split?
In 2020, the couple threw in the towel briefly, and there were reports that Kelce had been unfaithful.
The Kansas City Chiefs star wrote in a since-deleted tweet: "This is fake news, a lie, and not why Kayla and I broke up, take all your hatred somewhere else please."
They reunited but finally split two years later.
After their final breakup there was speculation the two parted ways because the NFL player refused to pay the bill too many times.
You’ve got to be crazy if you’d think I would never helped or gave her a couple thousand to grab some food
Both Travis and Kayla addressed the rumors circulating online, with the sports star saying: "Don’t buy into that s**t."
He added: “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.
“We were in a relationship for five years.
"A hundred dollars here, a hundred dollars there wasn’t even thought about.”
I was in really great shape, but I felt like s**t, and I was sad, and I was having a hard time getting out of bed
Kayla Nicole
Kayla also backed up her ex-partner and squashed the theory.
She tweeted: "Not sure where y’all got this nonsense from, but it’s absurd and very false."
But Kayla was open about dealing with the split in an interview with People in October 2023.
She referred to the "major breakup" as a "major life change" that caused her to lose a lot of weight and affected her sleep.
She explained: "I was in really great shape, but I felt like s**t, and I was sad, and I was having a hard time getting out of bed."
The model revealed she went to therapy for a period of time to help process the split.
She said: "It’s one thing to be physically fit, but it’s another thing to be mentally fit.
"You could be in the best shape of your life, but mentally, if you are not a healthy person, it’s not going to feel good.”
After the split, Kelce said in an interview with Pivor: "I’m in the free market right now. I’m out there just enjoying life, focused on my profession."
Who are Kayla Nicole and Travis Kelce dating now?
Kelce is now dating Taylor Swift after months of speculation.
Rumors were sparked in July 2023, when the footballer attended her Eras Tour.
Then, in his podcast New Heights, he confessed he'd tried to give the pop icon a bracelet with his phone number on it.
He said: “I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings, so I was a little bit hurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her.”
Then, in September 2023, Kelce ignited more interest in their potential romance after acting suspiciously on NFL+ with host Andrew Siciliano.
When asked if he really gave Taylor the bracelet, the NFL player admitted: "I said what I said. And I meant what I said when I said it. And you know what, it is what it is."
He added: “I’m not gonna talk about my personal life.”
He playfully said, "I'm not gonna give you anything," before shutting down the conversation when Siciliano asked if Taylor had been in contact.
He laughed: "And that's gonna wrap it up here."
By the end of September, Taylor was seen with Travis’ mom, Donna, in a suite at Arrowhead Stadium watching Kelce's game.
The pair went for a cozy dinner together afterwards, fuelling more belief they were dating - but there was still no official confirmation from either of them.
In October, the singer watched another one of Kelce's games, alongside Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds, Sophie Turner, Sabrina Carpenter, Antoni Porowski, and Hugh Jackman.
Within the same month, the Super Bowl winner secretly celebrated his birthday with Taylor for a "chill night," as reported by Us Weekly.
From there, the couple put on a loved-up display while out in public, including sharing a kiss at the Los Angeles Chargers vs. Kansas City Chiefs game.
In April 2024, an insider told Us Weekly: "After the Super Bowl, Travis will be joining Taylor on her tour and traveling with her.
“They are happy and looking forward to spending more time together.”
Meanwhile, Kayla appears to have stayed single since the breakup and even said she was done dating athletes.
Speaking on the Behind the Lakes podcast, she said: "I would love to just date someone that — I do think that I’m attracted to men in positions of power, I do think that those types of men are attracted to me.
“So, I would love to date an executive of a record label or a movie producer.”
The model added that she's not interested in having "a jersey on with somebody's name on the back" anymore.
Following the release of Taylor's eleventh album, The Tortured Poet's Department, Kayla took to X (formerly Twitter) to share a message about getting hate from the artist's fanbase.
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"I’m unproblematic. Mind my business. Never respond to the constant vitriol. Solid as they come & don’t expect a pat on the back for it either," Kayla began.
She concluded, "Just know everyone has a breaking point & would love for ‘yall’ (because you know exactly who you are) to leave me alone.”