Chase Stokes took aim at his ex-girlfriend Kelsea Ballerini’s former husband, Morgan Evans, in a now-deleted Instagram post.
“This is about the most pathetic excuse of masculinity ive ever seen. Get a f***ing life,” the Outer Banks actor, 33, posted in a comment under Evans’ interview from Bobby Bones’ “The BobbyCast” podcast on Tuesday, March 3.
Stokes reportedly later deleted the Instagram comment. Us Weekly has reached out to representatives for Stokes, Ballerini and Evans.
In the “BobbyCast” interview, Evans, 40, admitted that he was “not expecting that conversation” when Ballerini, 32, told him that she wanted a divorce in 2022. (The couple settled their divorce in November 2022 after five years of marriage. Ballerini has said that she felt “out of control” during her divorce but regretted “nothing.”)
Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes Split Again: What Went Wrong?
“I definitely wasn’t [expecting it], and it took me by surprise,” Evans told Bones, 45. “But yeah, that whole time is such a blur. It almost feels like somebody else, just from where I’m sitting now. I just look back and I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ … Yeah, it was just kind of a whirlwind, life-changing moment.”
Elsewhere, Evans argued that he was characterized unfairly in the narrative surrounding his divorce from Ballerini.
“In my case, it didn’t feel like it necessarily had a lot to do with me,” Evans said. “I think maybe I was presented, or made out to be, or became an archetype for any guy that had done any woman wrong during that period of time. Like, some of the stuff was just like… ‘what? What are you even talking about?”
“It doesn’t not hurt…especially if it was real vicious or something,” he went on. “And then I’d click on whoever said it and just have a look and just be like, ‘Oh, yeah, it’s OK. That looks like somebody going through a tough time.’”
Stokes’ mockery of Evans’ “masculinity” in his now-deleted Instagram comment stirred up significant controversy around the interview. “BobbyCast” host Bones responded to Stokes’ remark in a Wednesday, March 4, video, saying that he had “nothing against” the Outer Banks actor.
“If you’re going to come that hard, maybe you don’t want to take that [comment] down,” Bones quipped.
The podcaster defended Evans discussing his divorce, explaining that split partially inspired the singer-songwriter’s third studio album Steel Town, out March 20.
“It was just, he’s going to speak about [the divorce] once and never again, so we did that,” Bones stressed. “I thought he came off really well. I thought he was very kind in his version of events. There’s three stories, right? There’s his story, her story and the real story.”
Bones suggested that the “people who project onto other people” might be “way less masculine and maybe insecure in their own masculinity.”
“This masculinity thing was just weird. Why would you challenge someone’s masculinity?” Bones wondered.
Ballerini dated Stokes on and off for three years following her divorce from Evans. Us reported in February that Ballerini and Stokes had split for the third time, just one month after their latest reconciliation. A source told Us that Stokes “still [wasn’t] ready to give up” on the relationship, but Ballerini was “done.”
Ballerini seemingly referenced the demise of her and Stokes’ relationship in an Instagram post about “the final day of the Year of the Snake” on February 16. (The next Lunar New Year cycle, the Year of the Fire Horse, started the following day on February 17.)
“This year asked you to shed layers you didn’t even realize you were still carrying,” her Instagram Story read. “It brought endings you didn’t expect, lessons you didn’t ask for, and moments that tested your patience, strength, and faith. Growth was not loud. It was uncomfortable. It was quiet. It was internal.”
Her message went on, “But look at you. You’re still here. Wiser. Stronger. More aware of who you are and what you deserve.”
