Over for her! Kelsea Ballerini is distancing herself via social media from ex Morgan Evans — less than one week after confirming her new romance with Chase Stokes.
The country crooner, 29, unfollowed her ex-husband, 37, via Instagram. The 37-year-old Australia native, however, is still following Ballerini.
The social media shade comes after the “Heartfirst” singer made an appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast earlier this month to open up about her split from the “Young Again” singer. The pair tied the knot in December 2017 after getting engaged following nine months of dating. Ballerini filed for divorce from Evans in August 2022 and the paperwork was finalized three months later.
During her candid conversation with host Alex Cooper on the February 22 episode, the Grammy nominee shared that while the exes were initially on good terms following their separation, “something changed” between them and she hasn’t “talked to him since.”
One month after announcing they called it quits, Evans penned a breakup track titled “Over for You.”
“As he’s putting out a song about being blindsided, he’s taking half the house that he didn’t pay for. How was I married to this person for this long and had no idea that that bit of character was tucked within that human being?” the Tennessee native explained on “Call Her Daddy,” adding that things got “nasty” between them.
“I was livid. … I did not blindside him,” she explained. “I think that if he truly was blindsided, then where was he?”
She argued it felt “really opportunistic” for Evans to release the song before the divorce was even final. “I felt really used in that moment,” she said.
Ballerini meanwhile, released her own record, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat — a six-track EP that chronicles the end of her marriage and seemingly responds (and disputes) Evans’ claims. The tracks, including “Mountain With a View,” “Penthouse,” “Just Married,” “Interlude” and the aptly titled “Blindsided,” debuted on Valentine’s Day.
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“I think I was just kind of putting examples in there. … I’ve taken the time to, like, actually sit in my feelings and, like, go through that grieving process and take ownership of what I brought to the table,” she said.
After the EP’s release, Ballerini explained in a statement that she “wasn’t worried about anything other than presenting the songs as honestly as possible” and that the record is how she “processed” her marriage ending.
“It’s the way I got my feelings out of my body and heart and put them to music, which is the purest way I could’ve handled it,” she explained via Instagram at the time.
Evans, for his part, released a statement of his own — just hours before the “Subject to Change” artist’s appearance on “Call Her Daddy.”
“It’s really sad for me to see this person, who I spent so much of my life with, and loved with all my heart, saying things that aren’t reality and that leave out what really happened,” Evans wrote via Instagram on February 21. “She knows I’m not the type of guy to speak on those things publicly. If this is what she needs to heal, I hope it helps.”
While Ballerini is distancing herself from Evans via social media, Instagram only helped her get closer to the 30-year-old Outer Banks star, whom she’s been linked to since January when they were seen at the College Football Playoff National Championship in Los Angeles.
“I slid into his DMs,” she added about making the first move with Stokes in December 2022. “I just swan dove right on in. … His handle is ‘hichasestokes’ and I just said, ‘Hi Chase Stokes.’”
Ballerini added that she’s “happy” and relearning” a lot about how she behaves in a relationship now that she’s dating the Stranger Things alum. When asked whether she was worried about how Evans would feel about her new romance, she replied, “I’m not married to him anymore and I don’t need to care about his feelings anymore. I mean that will all the respect in the world, but his journey is not mine.”