Kayla Nicole, the former girlfriend of American football star Travis Kelce, has publicly expressed shame and issued a formal apology after a series of offensive social media posts from her past resurfaced online.
The Offensive Posts and Initial Reaction
Last week, screenshots of old posts made by Nicole in 2010 began circulating on social media platform X. The posts contained racist remarks against Mexican and Asian people, as well as a homophobic slur where she threatened violence against gay individuals.
In one post, she referred to a 'dumb fat Mexican h**' and in another claimed that 'Asian ppl rude as f***'. Following the emergence of these screenshots, Nicole initially deleted her social media accounts.
A Public Apology on Instagram
On Thursday, however, Nicole returned to Instagram to address the controversy directly. In a lengthy post on her Story, she took full responsibility for her past words.
'I want to take a moment to sincerely apologize for the hurtful tweets I posted so many years ago,' she wrote. 'Seeing them resurface last week has been incredibly difficult, and reading them now, I'm ashamed that I ever thought or spoke that way.'
She described the posts as 'ignorant, hurtful and completely wrong' and stated that the woman she is today would never express such views.
Context and Recent Controversies
The resurfacing of these posts occurred amidst other online speculation concerning Nicole. She dated Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce on and off between 2017 and 2022.
Fans had recently been discussing her Halloween costume, where she dressed as singer Toni Braxton and mimed to lyrics about a man who 'wasn't man enough for me,' which some interpreted as a slight against Kelce and his new fiancée, Taylor Swift.
This was followed by theories that Swift herself referenced Nicole in a song from her new album, though Nicole has previously stressed she is 'not in the business of tearing other women down.'
In her apology, Nicole concluded by saying she has deleted the posts and her X account entirely, refusing to 'keep that energy alive.' She vowed to show through her future actions that her heart is 'completely rooted in empathy, love, and respect for others.'
