Chase Stokes Posted A Sweet PDA Moment With Kelsea Ballerini On IG

Chase Stokes and Kelsea Ballerini are official-official just in time for Outer Banks Season 3. The duo first sparked dating rumors when Stokes posted a picture of them cozying up at a football game on Jan. 13. Though they played it coy at first, on Feb. 22, Ballerini confirmed the romance during her Call Her Daddy interview — amid a pretty heavy conversation about her divorce drama. Cue the latest: a sweet Instagram Story from Stokes of Ballerini kissing his cheek.

So far, Instagram has played a pretty big role in Stokes and Ballerini’s relationship. On Call Her Daddy, the singer admitted that she slid into Stokes’ DMs after her manager encouraged her to shoot her shot. She recalled, “I’ve never seen the show, but I just knew of him. And so I followed him, and he followed me, and I just swan-dove right on in.” For her first message, Ballerini kept things straightforward. “His handle is @hichasestokes, and I said, 'Hi, Chase Stokes,’” she explained.

Instagram still seems like their go-to. On Feb. 23, Stokes took to the platform to show Ballerini a little bit of love. “imy❤️,️” he wrote alongside a sweet photo of them together. (Ballerini is currently touring.)

Stokes and Ballerini first prompted dating rumors on social media in January. Stokes shared a photo dump on Instagram captioned “lil recap.” In the third slide, he’s snuggled up with someone at the College Football Playoff National Championship. Stokes confirmed the woman was Ballerini by tagging the country singer in the photo.

During the game, Stokes and Ballerini also posed for a group photo with the CEO of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, Todd Graves. Other celebrities such as Dylan Sprouse, rapper YG, and Lauv are also in the photo. As for the couple, they can be seen in the lower right side of the picture, looking pretty comfortable together.

Originally, Stokes and Ballerini seemed content to let the photos speak for themselves — but a few days later on Jan. 16, Ballerini responded to the dating rumors on TikTok. The singer posted a screenshot of a DeuxMoi post, where someone claimed Ballerini was “too busy consistently asking out the manager of soho house nash” to date Stokes. Ballerini added her own two cents: “I know, I know, I know. Stop reading, stop reading. Stop looking. But what is happening, guys. What? Let’s not do this.”

Her caption underscored her annoyance. “I’m about to break up with the internet 5 sure,” she wrote.

Stokes also responded to the dating rumors a few days later. On Jan. 18, the actor told TMZ that he and Ballerini are just “having a good time.” He even thanked the videographer when she described them as “the cutest couple.”

This new romance comes sometime after both Stokes and Ballerini publicly got out of serious relationships. Stokes previously dated his Outer Banks co-star Madelyn Cline, but they split in November 2022. According to People, the stars reportedly split due to their busy schedules and even attempted to repair their relationship before calling it quits.

As for Ballerini, she separated from fellow country singer Morgan Evans in 2022 after five years of marriage. On Feb. 14, she released her EP Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, which largely focuses on the pain of divorce. "These are six songs I wish I had last year. It's about the complexities of the feelings you go through during a massive shift at a young age," she told People. "Rolling Up the Welcome Mat was how I processed everything. It's the way I got my feelings out of my body and heart and put them to music — which is the purest way I could've handled it."