Kayla Nicole isn’t holding back.
During her guest appearance on the Second Wind podcast, the media personality, 33, opened up about still being referred to as Travis Kelce’s ex despite their romance ending in 2022 after five years of on-and-off dating.
“I think initially I’m new to the landscape of being a public figure,” Nicole said on the May 6 episode, hosted by five-time Olympian Marion Jones and acclaimed entrepreneur Suzanne Evans. “I don’t consider myself to be a celebrity, but a public figure absolutely.”
“So I think I could have used a little PR training and learning how to navigate the space with the media because I was going into interviews thinking a little naively like, ‘Oh, they just want to hear my story,'” she shared.
Related: Who Is Travis Kelce’s Ex-Girlfriend? All About Kayla Nicole
Kayla Nicole/Instagram
Kayla Nicole
While Nicole said she’s always opened up with the innocent thought that readers or listeners wanted to know about her “wellness journey” and about “Tribe Therapy,” she’s come to find out that the intentions of an interview aren’t always genuine.
“You sit down and you do an hour-long interview with someone and the headline is maybe a one sentence that you said of, ‘Yeah, I was heartbroken and devastated because I went through a breakup and that’s the headline,'” she said.
“Like, ‘So-and-so’s ex is devastated still and she’s sad and she’s depressed,” Nicole continued. “It’s like, ‘Damn, girl, did you listen to anything? I am human and I take it with a grain of salt now. One day they’re going to have to stop calling me someone’s ex.”
“I don’t know if that means I have to date someone else publicly but they’re going to have to just let it go,” she thought out loud in the episode. “Until then, I’m going to ride this off into the sunset… I want you all to report on me and the things that I’m doing.”
She added that she’s ultimately choosing to share her experiences publicly with the intention of helping others going through similar situations.
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Kayla Nicole/Instagram
Kayla Nicole
“I think that there’s a life out there, there’s a woman out there who feels like what she’s going through is this singular experience — and so if I can make her feel like she’s seen and understood, and if I can make it out of something like this, so she, that’s what my job here is to do,” she said.
Nicole concluded, “Other than that, I don’t care. I simply don’t care.”
This isn’t the first time Nicole has reflected on the challenges she faced following her public breakup with Kelce.
Related: Kayla Nicole Reveals How Dating Ex Travis Kelce Impacted Her Relationships. Now She Swears by 1 Major Romance Rule
Kayla Nicole/Instagram
Kayla Nicole
In early April, during the debut episode of The Pre-Game podcast, the media personality answered a fan question about whether dating someone in the public eye “altered” the way she moves in relationships now.
Though she never named the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Nicole left listeners with no uncertainty when she answered, “Absolutely.” She maintained that the public “won’t ever see me with a man ever again until I’m married with kids.”
The reporter started dating the record-breaking NFL star in 2017, and they continued an on-again, off-again relationship for five years.
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