Chase Stokes has been devastated by his recent breakup with Kelsea Ballerini, a source exclusively tells Us Weekly.
“Chase is heartbroken,” the insider tells Us. “It’s been nonstop ups and downs.”
Us confirmed on Thursday, November 20, that Ballerini, 32, and Stokes, 33, had split, with a second source claiming that the pair’s relationship had gotten “so rocky and toxic.” (Reps for Ballerini and Stokes were unable to be reached for comment.)
Hours earlier, Stokes raised eyebrows when he seemingly alluded to his drama with the “I Sit in Parks” singer.
“I’m blocked, I did nothing wrong. Sorry. I tried,” Stokes wrote in a series of cryptic Instagram Story messages on Thursday. “I’m sorry for those who believed in us. It is what it is. Onwards and upwards.”
Stokes and Ballerini started dating in January 2023, which was the Grammy nominee’s first relationship after her 2022 divorce from Morgan Evans.
“I was ready to open back up [after my divorce]. I just felt, ‘Why not? I’ve never really dated. I don’t know how it works,’” Ballerini said during an appearance on “Call Her Daddy” podcast in February 2023. “I’m like, ‘Let’s just put ourselves out there. Let’s just vibe.’ And it’s been fun. I slid into his DMs. I just swan dove right on in. His handle is ‘hichasestokes’ and I just said, ‘Hi Chase Stokes.’”
After two years of dating, news broke in September that Ballerini and Stokes had called it quits.
“It was a hard split,” a source told Us at the time. “They had been arguing a lot recently, and their communication wasn’t great in the last month. They were both traveling so much and trying to juggle everything, and the arguments piled up.”
Within weeks, Ballerini and Stokes were spotted together in Scotland and Croatia. Neither star has publicly discussed their brief reunion. While Stokes has been busy filming the final season of Netflix’s Outer Banks, Ballerini has been celebrating the recent release of her Mount Pleasant EP.
“I’ve absolutely fallen in love with making EP’s in between albums. There’s such a freedom and unbounded nature to the process, from the writing to the production, that I have found to be a creative exercise and also palate cleanser,” Ballerini wrote via Instagram on November 14. “Mount Pleasant is a collection of six songs that I’ve written throughout the summer, marking a chapter of heavy self-examination, longing and stepping further into who I am as a 32-year-old woman.”
Ballerini conceptualized Mount Pleasant in the months after dropping her 2024 studio album, Patterns, and embarking on her first arena tour.
“I had the biggest dopamine dump of my adult life and months ‘off’ to really sit in the feelings that were coming up in the stillness and quiet,” she added. “While I love to be sparkly and confident, I was feeling heavy waves of insecurity that I hadn’t really taken pen to paper about before. [I felt] so seen by fans and music lovers in my more recent music that has felt more emotionally peeled back and sometimes uncomfortably honest, I felt encouraged to let it all out in the safest way I know how. … Mount Pleasant is a place, a feeling, an uphill journey, and an idea of what’s to come.”
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