Kelsea Ballerini Shares the Scariest (And Best) Part of Her Relationship
If you're a fan of Kelsea Ballerini, you know her music is from the heart, especially when it comes to her love life. After her divorce from Morgan Evans in 2022, she released an EP called Rolling Up The Welcome Mat about it. She began dating Outer Banks star Chase Stokes in January 2023 and wrote about their relationship on her recent album, Patterns. Kelsea Ballerini is on the cover of PEOPLE Magazine and opened up about finding love in the interview.
Kelsea and Chase Challenge Each Other in the Best Way
The singer told PEOPLE that she always "romanticized" what a healthy relationship would look like. Now she's navigating one with Chase, and it's going incredibly well.
"[Chase] helps me see the best things about myself and vice versa. We also show each other the things that we want to get better at," Kelsea shared. "This is the first time I've ever been challenged in a relationship in this way. As soon as I feel something going differently than I thought it would, I will be like, 'Got to go.' And it's not because I want to, it's because I'm so scared of getting hurt, so I'll leave before I get left. He challenged me quickly on that one, and thank God. Those are the kind of things that I have found in this relationship and this season of love that I had never really known before."
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She Now Looks at Love "Practically"
Seeing love through a practical lens is "my favorite version of it," Kelsea said.
She added, "I didn't really have an example of what a solid relationship looked like in my developmental years. I learned the hard way. Now 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.' 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."
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She Isn't Afraid of Hard Choices
One thing Kelsea has learned from life experiences is to not be afraid of making hard choices.
"I had to shed some skin and make some tough choices and know that although things would be difficult for moments, it would make things so much better in the long run," the country star told PEOPLE. "I think it's running toward things that scare you and standing up for things you believe in and doing it all unabashedly. That's really been the biggest change in my life, just going, 'Rip the Band-Aid.' That's what I credit being happy and steady to."
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Songwriting Helped Her Cope With More Challenging Parts of Her Life
Kelsea started her songwriting journey when her parents divorced and she was 12 years old. Her music and songwriting skills helped her deal with her own divorce.
"I was going through what my parents did, and I went back to writing songs simply because I had to," she said. "I was like, 'I have to get it out of me.' My intention putting it out was to show other sides of heartbreak—to have more narrative, especially for women, around life changes and divorce."
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She Has "A Relationship" With Her Flaws
Kelsea is a romantic and has her own successful way of practicing self-love.
She told PEOPLE, "I'm very aware of my flaws. I have a relationship with them, and I do the work to keep growing up and growing out of certain things, but in the same breath, I fully accept and celebrate myself right now. I don't think I've ever been truly able to before because I had to go through life. You have to learn yourself before you love yourself—and I had learning to do."
