Travis Kelce’s ex-girlfriend is speaking out about the “embarrassment” and “backlash” that’s come her way.
In a four-minute video she posted Monday to Instagram, Kayla Nicole shared an open letter dubbed “Dear Black Girl” to her more than 724,000 followers. Before reading the letter, Nicole shared that “it’s always been really important for me to use my platform not to create division but to elevate and unite women, Black women specifically.”
Then, the open letter.
“Dear Black girl, they may call you a traitor for falling in love. 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 says looking directly into the camera. “They’ll say you’re too much, too provocative, too boisterous, too outspoken. And in the same breath tell you 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.”
She also added, “You don’t have to participate in this tumultuous, often one-sided journey. Preserve your heart even when they try to quantify your character and best your boundaries you do not have to engage. You do not have to respond. because there is power in your silence. and you can use that same power to silence the noise and the self-doubt.”
The video comes amid Kelce’s rumored romance with Taylor Swift and Swifties flooding Nicole’s Instagram posts with Taylor Swift GIFs. It also didn’t go unnoticed with Swift fans that Nicole reportedly unfollowed Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany Mahomes, whom she’d reportedly been close friends with. Brittany would later be seen partying with Swift after the songstress attended her first Chiefs game in Kansas City, Missouri.
Nicole and Kelce dated on and off from 2017 until May 2022. In March 2022, Kayla participated in an Instagram Q&A and revealed how the pair first crossed paths.
“He had been following me and Insta-flirting for a few months. All double taps and no DM,” Nicole shared. “Soooo after a little liquid courage… I DM’d him on New Year’s.”
While neither Kelce nor Nicole confirmed the reason behind their split in 2022, Kelce adamantly shut down cheating rumors, tweeting, “This is fake news… a lie… and not why Kayla and I broke up… take all your hatred somewhere else please.”