SAEDNEWS: At New York Fashion Week, Travis Kelce’s ex Kayla Nicole gracefully dodged a question about his engagement to Taylor Swift — saying only, “Oh, no, no, no,” before confirming she’s single and sharing what she really wants from a man: honesty, character and spontaneity.
At the House of Champion event during New York Fashion Week, sports reporter Kayla Nicole — who dated Travis Kelce for five years before their 2022 split — was asked on the red carpet if she had “any comment” about Kelce’s engagement to Taylor Swift. Her response: a brisk, disarming, “Oh, no, no, no.” It was a clear effort to opt out of the narrative and keep the moment about her, not her ex.
Nicole did, however, confirm she is single and used the opportunity to outline what she’s looking for in a partner: “I love a very honest man,” she told reporters, adding she wants “a man of really great character. Someone who likes to have fun. Spontaneous, great relationship with their family, has really good girlfriends. The list is long!” It was a neat pivot from gossip to self-direction.
She hasn’t directly commented on Kelce and Swift’s engagement publicly, but hours after the Aug. 26 announcement Nicole reshared an Instagram clip of Tracee Ellis Ross speaking about cultivating joy. She wrote over the clip: “Read about this very concept years ago in a book called Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn't Enough. I aspire! So so good.” In the clip Tracee says, “I work at it,” and distinguishes joy from fleeting happiness — a message Nicole appeared to endorse.
Nicole has previously opened up about how their breakup affected her. On Special Forces: The World’s Toughest Test in January she admitted going through a public split was “overwhelming” and described the aftermath as “pretty constant and exhausting.” She said the nonstop social-media commentary had made her question her self-worth at times. “It’s inadvertently affected me to the point where it makes me question my overall value as a person,” she said.
Nicole also discussed the difficulty of being constantly compared to Taylor Swift, saying the ongoing loop of comparison has been painful. She told viewers through tears that she’s still figuring out how to cope with the scrutiny: “I think there’s just the comparison and it’s just like on loop,” she explained.
On her Pre-Game podcast Nicole weighed in on what she sees as meaningful generosity, pushing back against a culture of performative romantic gestures. When asked whether a man giving his last name is “the most player s--t,” she replied, “I respectfully disagree,” and argued instead that “The most player s--t you could do is put [a million dollars] in her bank account.” She added, “I think generational wealth is the greatest thing you could give a woman.”
