The country musician featured her Hollywood boyfriend in one of her music videos—here’s everything to know about Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes’ romance.

“Love me like you mean it,” country-pop star Kelsea Ballerini crooned in her debut single of the same name back in 2015, and nearly a decade later, it seems like she found someone to do exactly that. The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter has called “Dibs” (get it?) on actor Chase Stokes, with the twosome making public appearances together everywhere from collegiate football games to award-show red carpets to the splashy premieres of Stokes’ hit TV series.

Ballerini gushed about dating a fellow “artist” during an interview on Sunday Today With Willie Geist: “I think the beautiful thing about being with an artist—in a different field but an artist—is that it also equates to being with a truth-teller. When I got into this relationship, I hadn’t put out Welcome Mat. I remember I sent that EP to him and I just said, ‘Hey, you’re going to ask eventually. So, I’m just going to go ahead and give this to you.’ He lifted that record up and supported it and stood side-stage the whole time. That takes someone who really celebrates truth-telling, and believes in the person that’s doing it.”

The music star has seemingly found her biggest fan in Stokes—from the beginnings of their courtship to their current status of their romance, here is everything to know about the couples’ relationship.

Who is Kelsea Ballerini’s boyfriend Chase Stokes?

Most recently, Kelsea Ballerini has been dating American actor Chase Stokes, best known for his lead role as John B. Routledge on the Netflix action-adventure drama Outer Banks, which wrapped up its fourth season on Nov. 7. (Stokes will reportedly return for a fifth and final season, expected to drop sometime in 2026.)

Prior to his breakout performance on Outer Banks, the 32-year-old star appeared on TV series like Stranger Things, Daytime Divas, The First and Tell Me Your Secrets; and movies like Between Waves and Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets. Stokes was one of the leads of the 2024 sci-fi flick Uglies opposite Joey King and will next be seen in 2025 titles including Nick Cassavetes’ Marked Men: Rule + Shaw and Steve Barnett’s Valiant One.

When did Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes start dating?

The couple first went public with their relationship in February 2023 and are currently still together nearly two years later. However, rumors of their relationship were circulating for weeks before that official confirmation, after Stokes posted an Instagram photo dump on January 13, 2023, that featured a snap of the actor canoodling at the College Football National Championship game with a mystery blonde. Chase quickly solved the mystery for everyone by tagging Ballerini in the photo.

By the next month, the singer was confirming that she was no longer single during a February 2023 appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast and Stokes was gushing about his musical girlfriend while at the Season 3 premiere of Outer Banks, telling Entertainment Tonight: “I mean, she’s the best. I’m so excited for her and everything happening in her career right now.”

How did Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes meet?

While on “Call Her Daddy” in February 2023, Ballerini revealed that she met her future boyfriend Chase Stokes after sliding into his DMs back in December 2022. “Why not? I’ve never really dated. I don’t know how it works. I’m like, what? Let’s just put ourselves out there,” Kelsea shared on the podcast. “I’ve never seen [Outer Banks] but I just knew of him. So I followed him and he followed me and I just swung through right on it.” Her opening line was a simple one: “His handle is ‘@hichasestokes,’ and I said, ‘Hi, Chase Stokes.”

After making a connection over social media, the duo went to a sushi restaurant for their first date, Ballerini later disclosed in a TikTok video in August 2023. Captioned “happy weekend here’s a video i sent to my best friend before my first date with chase,” the sweet clip sees Ballerini showing off the spaghetti-strapped minidress and cowgirl boots she donned on the date, as well as a healthy dose of pre-date nerves. “I can do this. It’s just a date, you just go and you just eat food and you talk about things that you do,” she pep-talked herself in the vid. Thankfully, the dinner clearly went well!