Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl dropped on Friday, October 3, and we've all been combing through the lyrics for Easter eggs and hints about how Taylor truly feels about Travis Kelce, Blake Lively, her ex-boyfriends, and the world at large. One surprising lyric, however, had fans wondering if Taylor threw unnecessary shade at Travis' ex-girlfriend Kayla Nicole – and now Kayla is responding.
On track three, "Opalite," during which Taylor sings about previous failed romances that left her living in a dark world, the award-winning singer turns the narrative on Travis' own life in the second verse. "You couldn't understand it, why you felt alone / You were in it for real, she was in her phone and you," she sings, an alleged nod to Kayla, whom Travis dated for five years and who is an influencer and sports journalist.
"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," the verse concludes before Taylor launches into the chorus again, in which she describes a dark "onyx night" but that she made her own sunshine and the sky is now "opalite".
However, hours after the release, Kayla took to Instagram Stories to share a clip from an episode of America's Next Top Model. In the video, contestant Eva Marcille walks into the audition room and is asked by Tyra Banks: "How do you compare yourself to the other girls out there?" In response, Eva confidently says: "I don't compare myself to other girls ... I'm no comparison to anyone else."
Travis Kelce's ex
Kayla and Travis met in 2018 on Instagram, and they were in an on-off relationship for five years, finally splitting in 2022. Their romance began with "insta-flirting," and she finally slid into his DMs after months of public "likes" and comments. "All double taps and no dm. Soooo after a little liquid courage and a pep talk from @iqueenb (something along the lines of 'WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR') I dm'd him on New Years," she revealed at the time.
Pain from so-called Swifties
However, in the wake of his relationship with Taylor going public in 2023, Kayla shared how painful the discourse around her had been, admitting on an October episode of the Unapologetically Angel podcast that she would "be lying if I said that that level of hate and just online chaos doesn't impact me."
"You could go to my most recent post and it'll be people debating why I'm worthless and how I'll never be a talented person," she said, speaking of so-called Swifties. She added: "I think there's something about that level of fame that attracts crazy people. And it's unfortunate because I've never done anything to warrant that kind of backlash."
Travis and Kayla's split
During her relationship with Travis they split in 2020 amid speculation that Travis had been unfaithful, which he denied in a now-deleted tweet captured by TMZ. "This is fake news... a lie... and not why Kayla and I broke up. Take all your hatred somewhere else, please," he wrote.
In 2022 they split again, with reports alleging Travis forced Kayla to pay for "half of everything" while they were dating, which he again denied during an interview with The Pivot Podcast
He explained: "Don't buy into that [expletive]. I would never say that I was supporting her. She had a very financially stable life and what she was doing in her career. But you've got to be crazy if you'd think I would [have] never helped or [given] her a couple thousand to grab some food, or she gave me some money to go get some food.... we were in a relationship for five years. A hundred dollars here, a hundred dollars there wasn't even thought about."