Travis Kelce's ex-girlfriend Kayla Nicole has shared how online criticism from Taylor Swift's so-called fans has impacted her mental health — and that she is actually a big fan of the superstar.
Kayla and Travis split in 2022 after five years together, and in summer 2023 he began dating Taylor. The model is now one of the contestants on the new season of Special Forces: World's Toughest Test on FOX.
"Being reduced to a headline, to something so small as someone’s ex-girlfriend? I feel like if I complete this [show], it'll have a massive impact for myself," she told the cameras.
She added: "Am I doing enough? Am I enough?"
After their first night at camp, the girls spoke about relationships and Kayla revealed she had previously dated Travis, before explaining how she really felt about the Kansas City Chiefs tight end's new girlfriend.
"I really, like, like her," Nicole said. "I think that she's very talented."
Kayla and Travis began dating in 2017 after she slid into his DMs after months after what she called "insta-flirting" by the NFL star. They split in 2020 amid reports of cheating which Travis denied.
"This is fake news … a lie … and not why Kayla and I broke up … take all your hatred somewhere else please,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet.
They reunited and enjoyed double dates with Travis' teammate Patrick Mahomes and his wife Brittany but split for good in 2022.
After Travis' romance with Taylor went public, Kayla shared an open letter to herself on social media in the form of a video which began: "Dear Black girl, they may call you a traitor for falling in love. You’ll hope the one's closest will protect you, but you will quickly find out that people don’t protect what they don’t value."
Seemingly shading Travis, she added: They’ll say you’re too much, too provocative, too boisterous, too outspoken. And in the same breath tell you you’re not enough. Not successful enough, not wholesome enough, maybe not even intelligent enough.
"They’ll say you deserve the backlash and embarrassment. Because of your blackness, you should have known better. They’ll even try to tie your value to your net worth."
Kayla continued: "You don’t have to participate in this tumultuous, often one-sided journey. Preserve your heart even when they try to quantify your character and best your boundaries you do not have to engage. You do not have to respond. because there is power in your silence. and you can use that same power to silence the noise and the self-doubt."
Some of the online hate she has received include comments such as "very pretty" and a sick emoji.
"It's giving desperate now, sweetheart," one comment read.
"I would be lying if I said that that level of hate and just online chaos doesn’t impact me," she told WNBA player Angel Reese during an episode of Angel's podcast Unapologetically Angel podcast.
"It does. Even to this day. You could go to my most recent post and it’ll be people debating why I’m worthless and how I’ll never be a talented person. And I have no career and I’m a mom."