Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes have reportedly called it quits after three years together.
Ballerini’s rep confirmed the news to People magazine. “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,” sources close to the couple told the outlet.
On Friday, the “Outer Banks” actor took to Instagram to give Ballerini a birthday shout-out.
“although you keep saying you’re not excited for 32, id say I’m lookin forward to more of this,” he wrote alongside a carousel of photos of the couple. “happy birthday my love.”
Fans were quick to share their confusion in the comment section.
“Guys I need answers. Who else is here looking for ANSWERS!?” one user wrote.
“Say sike right now because I can’t take more bad news,” another added.
“Yall stop playing. Is this for real??? Please tell me yall didn’t break up?,” one fan quipped.
Representatives for Ballerini and Stokes did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The “Cowboys Cry Too” singer began dating Stokes in December 2022. In an October 2023 interview with Neon, Ballerini revealed that she first connected with the actor when she sent him a flirtatious direct message on Instagram.
Earlier this year, Ballerini explained why attending therapy sessions with Stokes is the “sexiest thing ever.”
During an interview with People magazine, the five-time Grammy nominee opened up about how her perspective on relationships has changed since she fell in love with Stokes.
“I look at love really practically now, and somehow it’s my favorite version of it. I didn’t really have an example of what a solid relationship looked like in my developmental years. I learned the hard way,” Ballerini said.
“Now my version of love that I’ve found, it’s steady and it’s human, and we work on it,” she continued. “That, to me, honestly, is the sexiest thing, like, ‘Hey, you want to go to therapy? Let’s go to therapy.’”
She also told the outlet that she and Stokes relate to each other because of the similarities they share within their careers.
“Being with another creative, we both understand each other’s process,” Ballerini said. “I would never ask him to not take a role that he feels inspired by, and he would never ask me to round the edges of my songwriting. That’s one of the things I appreciate the most about him.”
“You become a mirror for each other. He helps me see the best things about myself and vice versa,” she added. “We also show each other the things that we want to get better at.”
“Chase and I were like, ‘What are our goals for the year?’ And we said we want to be hotter, funnier and more ambitious… the best version of ourselves.”
“Being so down with your person to put in the work for each other and individually, it’s a very new kind of love for me.”
Prior to her relationship with Stokes, Ballerini was married to musician Morgan Evans. The couple divorced in 2022.
During a February 2023 appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Ballerini opened up about the marital struggles that led to her divorce from Evans.
Ballerini shared that “there were separations. There was years of couples therapy. There was like, many a night of sleeping on the couch. I don’t think it was the first night, but it was a night where I was like, ‘This is not what I want.'”
The country star claimed that the marriage “took work for a long time,” and that there was a “sense of disconnection” between them.
“I was getting resentful because any time we did see each other, I felt like I was carrying that load, and I was tired,” she said. “I was just tired of showing up in that way all the time and not feeling like I was seen or matched.”
Fox News Digital’s Ashley Hume contributed to this post.
