Why Did Travis Kelce & Ex-Girlfriend Kayla Nicole Break Up? Inside Their Split

Kayla is starring in season 3 of ‘Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,’ and she got candid about her public breakup with Travis.

Image Credit: Vikram Valluri/BFA.com/Shutterstock

Travis Kelce and Kayla Nicole were together for nearly five years until they split. After dating on and off from 2017 to 2022, the Kansas City Chiefs player confirmed his single status in early 2023. So, what led to their breakup? Keep reading to learn everything we know about Travis and Kayla’s split. 

Why Did Travis Kelce and Kayla Nicole Break Up? 

Travis and Kayla split and reconciled several times throughout their relationship. After they briefly broke up in 2020, rumors circulated online alleging that Travis cheated on her, which he vehemently denied in a since-deleted tweet. 

“This is fake news … a lie … and not why Kayla and I broke up … take all your hatred somewhere else please,” the football tight end wrote at the time, according to Entertainment Tonight. However, that wasn’t the only baseless rumor that swirled about Travis and Kayla. Earlier this year, Travis appeared on “The Pivot Podcast,” where he confirmed his single status. The athlete also addressed the “cheap” report from Barstool Sports, alleging that he didn’t pay half of his and Kayla’s bills when they were together. 

“Don’t buy into that s**t,” Travis said in his podcast appearance. “I would never say that I was supporting her. She had a very financially stable life and what she was doing in her career. But you’ve got to be crazy if you’d think I would never [help] or gave her a couple thousand to grab some food or she gave me some money to go get some food. … We were in a relationship for five years. A hundred dollars here, a hundred dollars there wasn’t even thought about.”

Even Kayla denied the report by taking to X (previously Twitter) by writing, “Not sure where y’all got this nonsense from, but it’s absurd and very false.”

What Have Travis Kelce and Kayla Nicole Said About Their Relationship? 

When they were together, Kayla revealed how she and Travis first met, according to a screenshot from her Instagram Stories obtained by TMZ. 

“He had been following me and Insta-flirting for a few months,” she revealed in a since-deleted Instagram Story captured by TMZ. “All double taps and no dm. Soooo after a little liquid courage and a pep talk from @iqueenb (something along the lines of ‘WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR’) I dm’d him on New Years [sic],” Kayla explained. 

Travis followed up on his then-girlfriend’s explanation of their meet-cute during his 2022 interview with E! News. 

“I didn’t just go through every single pic and just start ‘liking’ it immediately,” the Chiefs team member noted. “It was over the course of a month’s span, just following her and ‘liking’ the pictures that she was posting and watching all of her Stories when Stories had first started coming out. I was just stalking her, and then, finally on New Year’s, she gave in. And, you know, New Year, new me. She just shot her shot, jumped in my DMs, and the rest is history.”

Has Kayla Addressed Travis’ Romance With Taylor Swift? 

Kayla has not publicly addressed her ex’s newfound romance with Taylor Swift, but her open letter to Black women garnered attention from fans. Though she never mentioned Travis in the letter, the on-air sports journalist talked about Black women being called “a traitor for falling in love” and the ongoing “backlash and embarrassment” they receive. 

“You’ll hope the ones closest will protect you, but you will quickly find out that people don’t protect what they don’t value,” she said. “They’ll say you’re too much … and in the same breath tell you that 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.”

In January 2025, Kayla appeared on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, and she owned up about her public split from Travis. At one point in a season 3 episode, Kayla complimented Taylor by telling other recruits on the show, “I really like, like, her. I think she’s very talented.”

However, the cruel comments she’s received online made her life difficult, Kayla told the directing staff members.

“Yeah it’s pretty consistent [and] exhausting,” she explained. “It doesn’t matter — I could post about the sky being blue and people will have a response about an ex and their new situation. It’s inadvertently affected me to the point where it makes me question my overall value as a person.”