Kelsea Ballerini Admits She Is Worried About Chase Stokes 'Taking' Her Job

Kelsea Ballerini knows there’s no such thing as total, 100% job security — especially when she sees the talent of her boyfriend, Outer Banks star Chase Stokes.

“He’s a really good singer,” Ballerini, 31, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, July 15, in partnership with Pantene to promote its new campaign, “Fixins for Country Fried Hair,” featuring the country music star as the brand’s Healthy Hair Ambassador.

“He’s a really good singer and he is a really good guitar player,” she continued, “so I’m worried about him taking my job, I’ll tell you that.”

The singer and new coach on season 27 of NBC’s The Voice says the pair – who were first romantically linked in January 2023 — find new ways to challenge each other while simultaneously supporting each other in their various career endeavours.

“You do [challenge each other], or it’s boring and then you’re stagnant and then that’s not going to work out,” she explained. “I think we’re two and a half years in, so [the relationship]looks a lot different now than it did in the beginning.”

She continued, “I don’t know, I think we’re really similar — and in the ways that we’re different, that’s where we challenge each other. But it’s in a way of wanting the… I just want all the good things in the world for him.

According to the singer, the demands of their individual schedules has “flip flopped” recently, after she had what she described as a “really heavy spring.”

“He has a really heavy summer through fall shooting, so he was such a grounding support system for me during that tour,” she added. “And now I get to do the same. So we’re just yin and yang.”

The “Peter Pan” singer and the Netflix star were first spotted together at the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship in L.A. Stokes included a cuddly photo from inside the arena in the Instagram dump that sparked dating rumors with Ballerini.

One month later, the artist confirmed their romance while appearing on a February 2023 episode of the hit “Call Her Daddy” podcast, revealing that she slid into Stokes’ DMs.

“[My manager] was like, ‘You know who’s really cute, like, when you’re ready? Chase.’ I was like, ‘You’re so right,’” she said at the time. “His handle is ‘hichasestokes’ and I just said, ‘Hi Chase Stokes.’”

While Ballerini might fear her boyfriend’s singing prowess, it’s perhaps Stokes who should be worried about his job security after Ballerini made her acting debut on the sixth episode of ABC’s medical drama Dr. Odyssey in November 2024.

“I’m open. I’m open,” she told US of her potentially making another TV or movie appearance. “It was so much fun and I really wanted to do it for the longest time. I was like, ‘I’m not going to try acting’ I was so scared of sucking and failing on camera. How embarrassing is that? So I was like, ‘I feel like I should run towards the things that scare me.’ And I tried it and I really enjoyed it.”

She added, “So I think if there’s the right thing, the right story to tell and if I was the right person to tell the story, why the heck not?”