
Kayla Nicole Reacts to ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ After Taylor Swift’s Alleged Shade in New Song About Travis Kelce
Kayla Nicole – Travis Kelce – Taylor Swift new song – Is Kayla Nicole reacting to Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl ? As soon as Swift, 35, dropped her 12th studio album on Friday, Oct. 3, fans started to speculate that the track “Opalite” was a dig at Nicole, who dated Swift’s fiancé Travis Kelce for roughly five years, beginning in 2017.
On the song — which appears to describe Swift’s previous failed relationships before she started dating Kelce, 35 — the Grammy winner seems to describe the athlete’s love life before she came into the picture.
“You couldn’t understand it, why you felt alone / You were in it for real, she was in her phone and you were just a pose,” sings Swift in an apparent nod to Kelce’s romance with Nicole, 33. “And don’t we try to love love? We give it all we got / You finally left the table, and what a simple thought / You’re starving ’til you’re not.”
In a post on her Instagram Stories on Oct. 3, Nicole shared a clip from an episode of America’s Next Top Model, in which contestant Eva Marcille was asked by Tyra Banks, “How do you compare yourself to the other girls out there?” and responded, “I don’t compare myself to other girls … I’m no comparison to anyone else.”
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‘The Life of a Showgirl’ album cover.
Mert Alas & Marcus Piggot
Swift has never publicly addressed Nicole’s former flame with Kelce.
Nicole was previously the subject of fan scrutiny in October 2023, when she unfollowed Kelce’s teammate Patrick Mahomes just days after Swift was seen out to dinner with Mahomes’ wife, Brittany Mahomes, in New York City amid reports that the singer’s relationship with Kelce was heating up.
Addressing rumors that she and Brittany, 30, were having a falling out, Nicole told PEOPLE at the time that “the reality” of their relationship was more complicated, and they had discussed the situation personally.
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“That’s a lot of history and friendship there, that doesn’t change overnight,” she clarified. “But publicly, because things are happening so quickly and so publicly, I have to protect myself. That’s really all that is. The love is still there.”
During Nicole’s first public appearance after Swift and Kelce announced their engagement in August, she shut down a question by the Daily Mail asking her to comment on the news.
She instead told PEOPLE at the event that the biggest lesson she had learned in 2025 was that “the opinions of others are only as big as you make them.”
“So if I don’t allow it to affect me, it simply won’t,” Nicole added. “You know what I mean? Sometimes on social media, we think that it’s the whole world, and it’s really not.”
The Life of a Showgirl is available to purchase and stream now.