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Kelsea Ballerini revealed the “hottest part” of her boyfriend, Outer Banks actor Chase Stokes, with a sweet response in a new interview.
Ballerini played Sip or Spill with Entertainment Tonight in a clip shared on Wednesday (October 23). The “Cowboys Cry Too” singer-songwriter reflected on the first photo Stokes posted of the couple on Instagram, stirring relationship rumors before either one of them publicly shared that they were talking with one another. Ballerini sent Stokes a DM on Instagram in December 2022, and Stokes posted a photo with Ballerini in January 2023 when they attended the College Football Playoff National Championship together at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Though their faces were not visible as they sat closely together, Stokes tagged Ballerini in the photo. Ballerini confirmed the relationship in an interview in February 2023.
“I think it is very underrated for a man to be like, really proud of his relationship,” Ballerini told Entertainment Tonight when asked about the “hottest part” about Stokes. “He posted that photo of us at the National Championship before we even had the conversation of, like, ‘are we together?’ Even as a very independently-wired woman, I love when he’s like, ‘this is us. Here we are.’ …He full sent that.”
Ballerini and Stokes celebrated their first anniversary earlier this year. In her tribute, she thanked Stokes “for making me write love songs. 🤍” One of the songs she released from her upcoming studio record, Patterns, is “First Rodeo,” a ballad about falling in love again after divorce. Ballerini said during the game of Sip or Spill that she “couldn’t not have (Stokes) in this [music] video. So, we wanted to do it tastefully, where it felt like we weren’t just like exploiting our relationship but it felt like, you know, this song is, it’s an ode to him, and so I wanted to…have his essence in it.”
Patterns will make its highly-anticipated debut on Friday (October 25). Ballerini will celebrate with a sold-out album release show on October 29 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. in January, she’ll kick off her first-ever arena tour. Ballerini previously said of her new era of music that she’s “never handled anything with so much care in my life.”
“The whole time I was making this album, I was visualizing and dreamscaping ways to bring it to life for our live show, and it was something I couldn't wait more than five days after its release to do,” Ballerini previously said in a statement. “When good things happen, when new chapters begin, you want to share them with your people. This time around, it just so happens to be in a bucket list venue in the heart of a city that is landmarked heavily in the music and visuals of PATTERNS. I'm so giddy to be celebrating this album release at Madison Square Garden...see you in New York City!”