Tragic Details About Travis Kelce's Ex Kayla Nicole

Model and sports journalist Kayla Nicole is known for flaunting her lavish life but also for having an infamous ex. As much as Nicole has built herself and her brand from the ground up, being Travis Kelce's ex-girlfriend has been hard for Nicole. Even though she may desperately want to move on, making a clean break from Kelce has proven to be one of many tragic details about Nicole's personal life — especially once he started dating pop powerhouse Taylor Swift. Having an ex dating one of the world's most famous people has got to be traumatic, to say the least.

For her part, Nicole has been doing her best to make it clear that she's over Kelce, but even those efforts can't erase the visible pain she went through. In a preview for "Special Forces: World's Toughest Test," Nicole is seen tearing up while admitting that going through such a public breakup was wildly difficult. "It's been overwhelming," she said.

There's been so much growth Nicole has had since she and Kelce officially split in 2022, but it's safe to say that the breakup was one of the more tragic things to have happened to Nicole.

The fallout from a breakup can be incredibly overwhelming. Depending on the situation, it can involve losing a sense of community as well as a romantic partner. Kayla Nicole was not spared in her very public breakup with Travis Kelce. Going into the relationship she was aware they were both public personalities, as Nicole was a sports reporter who worked with the Los Angeles Lakers and Kelce was a star player for the Kansas City Chiefs. However, when Kelce then started dating Taylor Swift a year later, things got messy, to say the least.

It was around this time that Nicole also stopped following her old friend, Brittany Mahomes — wife of Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes — on social media. This led many to wonder if Nicole and Brittany were still friends. Isolation and feeling the need to cut people out after a breakup can be a sign of struggling with depression, and Nicole has since opened up about her mental health struggles post-breakup. 

"Just full transparency, I went through this major breakup, major life change ... I wasn't sleeping, I wasn't eating," she told People. This did get her to start taking care of her mental health on top of her physical health; however, the tragic ride wasn't over yet. When asked by People what advice she would give herself, Nicole said, "You thought the worst had already come, but buckle up and take all of the tools right now and put them in your bag because you're going to need them." And she was not wrong — on top of the breakup, there were more tragic events right around the corner for Nicole.

Once Travis Kelce went public regarding his relationship with Taylor Swift in 2023, the online masses were quick to find Kayla Nicole. Still licking her wounds from the public breakup, a new wave of trauma came to crash over her. It got to the point where Nicole had to send a fiery message to Swifties to get them to back off. On the podcast "Unapologetically Angel" Nicole admitted, "I would be lying if I said that that level of hate and just, like, online chaos didn't impact me — it does."

Nicole admits to still dealing with hateful comments even years after Kelce and Swift have made their smooches public. However, this vitriol has only inspired Nicole to be and do better. Not just for herself, but for others like her. After sharing an Instagram letter to herself and other Black women struggling to find love, it led Nicole to start her own mental and physical health and wellness brand Tribe Therepe. Having these handy tools at the ready has helped Nicole turn trolling comments into positive affirmations full of inspiration and self-love. "I grant myself permission to love every version of me, throughout every season — imperfections and all," she wrote (via Instagram).