It’s official: country queen Kelsea Ballerini and Outer Banks heartthrob Chase Stokes have called it quits after almost three years of playing Nashville meets Netflix Barbie and Ken. PEOPLE confirmed the breakup Sunday, with a source spilling, “They’re two adults who gave it their all and tried to do everything they could to make it work, but ultimately couldn’t. It happens.”
That’s PR-speak for the fairy tale died quietly behind closed doors while the rest of us were eating brunch.
The split stings even harder because it came literally two days after Stokes posted a swoony Instagram tribute for Kelsea’s 32nd birthday. Yes, the man dropped “happy birthday my love ❤️” and then hit unfollow on their entire relationship like it was a limited Netflix series.
From Birthday Post to Breakup Postmortem
In his birthday post, Chase served fans a slideshow of their happiest moments, captioning, “Although you keep saying you’re not excited for 32, I’d say I’m lookin forward to more of this.”
Cut to 48 hours later, and the only thing he’s “lookin forward” to is not having to share the aux cord. Fans, naturally, are spiraling.
One commenter begged, “How did they go from this to breaking up? News just broke 😭.” Another wrote, “Guys I need answers. Who else is here looking for ANSWERS!?”
Meanwhile, a third fan was simply in denial: “Two days ok you posted this and People says you broke up today? I’m not following. Confused! Hoping it’s not true.”
Basically, Chase gave us a rom com ending on Friday and a funeral on Sunday.
Their Timeline: From Football Games to Therapy Dates
The couple’s romance sparked back in January 2023 when Chase sneakily posted a cuddly photo of them at a college football game. By April, they were making it red carpet official at the CMT Awards, solidifying their country pop culture crossover.
In 2024, Chase proudly told PEOPLE he and Kelsea kept things strong by never going more than three weeks without seeing each other. “The amount of effort that we put into our careers, we should be doubling that in our personal lives,”he said. Noble words, tragic ending.
Kelsea, reflecting on love after her messy divorce from musician Morgan Evans, once said, “My version of love that I’ve found, it’s steady and it’s human, and we work on it. That, to me, honestly, is the sexiest thing, like, ‘Hey, you want to go to therapy? Let’s go to therapy.’”
Well, turns out therapy didn’t save this duet either.
What Comes Next for America’s Sweethearts Gone Sour
Breakups are never pretty, but the timing of this one has fans feeling blindsided. It’s giving Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” 10 minute version energy with a dash of Outer Banks cliffhanger chaos.
Kelsea is likely to channel her heartbreak into Grammy worthy ballads, while Chase might take his single man energy straight back to Netflix beaches. One thing’s for sure: TikTok is about to be flooded with fan edits mourning the end of “Kelsea x Chase.”
Because when you make us believe in love, you don’t just get to leave quietly.
