Kelsea Ballerini has no problem with her boyfriend, Chase Stokes, working with his ex Madelyn Cline on Outer Banks.
During a Wednesday, November 29, appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, host Alex Cooper asked Ballerini, 30, to weigh in on speculation that she feels “threatened” by Stokes, 31, and Cline, 25, spending time together.
“I met [Madelyn] and I talked to her and she’s lovely and I think she’s wildly talented,” Ballerini said. “I think the internet did its best to make it really weird and it just didn’t work for them. I’m stoked to be on set and vibe with everyone.”
Ballerini added that she’s “a girls’ girl” who doesn’t “buy into the bulls—t” she sees online.
“I think [Chase and Madelyn] have a beautiful working relationship and I’m excited to hang with her,” the singer said. “People want drama, they don’t want consistency and happiness.”
Ballerini also told Cooper, 29, that if she did feel “insecure” about Stokes and Cline working together, it would say “way more about my insecurity with myself and my relationship” than it would about the exes’ dynamic. “And I don’t feel insecure with my relationship and I don’t feel insecure about myself,” she concluded.
Stokes and Cline began dating in 2020 after meeting on the set of Outer Banks. In May 2021, the pair took home the award for Best Kiss at the MTV Movie and TV Awards and recreated their onscreen lip lock while accepting the trophy.
That November, news broke that the costars had quietly called it quits. They’ve maintained an amicable working relationship.
“We’re both professionals. We always have been since day one,” Cline told W Magazine in August 2022 of working with her ex. “Outer Banks is a big family, and at the end of the day, we show up, we’re professional and we do our jobs.”
Stokes and Ballerini, meanwhile, are going strong after debuting their romance earlier this year. “He’s the most emotionally intelligent man I’ve ever met in my life,” Ballerini told Cooper of the actor on Wednesday. “I keep telling him he’s a man written by a woman.”
Ballerini, who finalized her divorce from ex-husband Morgan Evans in November 2022, added that sex with Stokes is different from what she’s experienced in the past.
“I didn’t understand how [sex] could be a real connector in a relationship. I always thought it was just something that you did,” she said, noting that her previous impression of sex was that it was “very performative and for the other person.”
With Stokes, Ballerini shared: “It don’t be like that anymore.”
