Influencer and model Kayla Nicole is one of 16 celebrities featured on Fox’s Special Forces: The World’s Toughest Test — and it didn’t take long before her ex-boyfriend Travis Kelce and his girlfriend, Taylor Swift, became a topic of conversation.
At the start of episode two, which aired as part of the two-part premiere on Wednesday, January 7, Nicole, 33, informed surfer Alana Blanchard and Disney alum Kyla Pratt that her ex is Kelce, 35.
“He’s dating Taylor Swift,” she said. “I just get a lot of s— online because he’s dating such a mega superstar.”
Nicole and Kelce dated on and off for five years and before calling it quits for good in 2022. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end started dating Swift in summer 2023.
Later in the two-part premiere, the Special Forces soldiers pull up an article with the headline: “Travis Kelce’s ex Kayla Nicole asks trolls to ‘leave her alone’ as Taylor Swift releases new album.”
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The article was originally published by The Independent in April 2024. At the time, Nicole had tweeted, “There’s just no way I can fully digest all these new albums. I’m still on Cowboy Carter.”
The post was taken as a dig at the release of Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department a.k.a the first album that features tracks inspired by Kelce.
“I’m unproblematic. Mind my business. Never respond to the constant vitriol,” she fired back at the time?. “Solid as they come & don’t expect a pat on the back for it either. Just know everyone has a breaking point & would love for ‘yall’ (because you know exactly who you are) to leave me alone.”
On the show, one of the spiders told Nicole that they wanted to explore what happens “when social media becomes a battlefield.”
Elsewhere in episode two, the rest of the cast chatted about Kelce.
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“I didn’t know that that was her ex,” Pratt said before Blanchard asked, “Is he a football player?”
Wide receiver Golden Tate subsequently informed them that Kelce is “arguably the greatest of all time to play tight end.”
“OK we ain’t here to pump that f— up right now,” Pratt declared. “We’re just gonna say he good.”
Keep reading for more quotes from Nicole about Kelce and Swift:
The Public Breakup
“Going through a public breakup, just to be frank, is overwhelming,” she said in a confessional on episode two. “I’ve never experienced anything like it. Being reduced to a headline —to something so small as someone’s ex-girlfriend — I feel like if I complete this it will be a massive impact for myself.”
A Fan
“I really like, like, her,” Nicole told Blanchard and Pratt on episode two, referring to Swift. “I think she’s very talented.”
An Interrogation
Before calling Nicole into the interrogation room on episode two, the Special Forces soldiers learn how Nicole was dragged into Kelce and Swift’s relationship online.
“Yeah it’s pretty consistent [and] exhausting,” she told staff about the discourse. “It doesn’t matter — I could post about the sky being blue and people will have a response about an ex and their new situation. It’s inadvertently affected me to the point where it makes me question my overall value as a person.”
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Nicole then began to cry. “It’s just the comparison. It’s just, like, on loop. I think I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with that.”
When she got back to her costars, Nicole explained what happened. “They pulled up an article about my ex. I didn’t think they were going to do that,” she said. “They’re just really good at, like, putting the pieces together to the feeling of me needing to prove myself to people.”
Carey Hart — a motocross champion who is married to Pink — replied, “Well, good. Well, move forward from that s—.”
