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Country singer Kelsea Ballerini and Outer Banks actor Chase Stokes recently started dating. Their new relationship has been the subject of fan speculation and some criticism due to its public nature. In her Instagram story, Ballerini revealed she knows some fans doubt her relationship with Stokes.

Chase Stokes and Kelsea Ballerini walk side by side
Chase Stokes and Kelsea Ballerini | Gotham/GC Images

Kelsea Ballerini posted about her relationship with Chase Stokes

On March 4, Ballerini was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Stokes was in New York City for the event and supported Ballerini.

A few days after SNL, Ballerini posted photos from her time in New York City on her Instagram page, and Stokes also posted a compilation of photos in a separate post.

Stokes captioned his Instagram post, “lil chaos and a lotta love.”

One of the photos in the post showed Ballerini sitting on Stokes’ lap while he adjusted the strap of her red dress.

On her Instagram story, Ballerini shared the photo from Stokes’ post with a subtle caption acknowledging the rumors about their relationship.

Ballerini captioned the photo, “idk seems staged. probably PR.”

Country music fans reacted to Kelsea Ballerini’s comment

For those who follow celebrities, some fans will doubt the start of new celebrity relationships due to certain factors. For example, if two actors from a film begin dating, fans might suspect the relationship is fake to drum up publicity for the movie.

Because Ballerini and Stokes began dating just before Ballerini released a new EP and season 3 of Outer Banks premiered, some celebrity gossip followers have speculated the new relationship between Stokes and Ballerini could be primarily for publicity.

After Ballerini commented on the rumors on her Instagram story, some country music fans praised her for putting the speculation to rest.

“… Anyways, I love Kelsea she’s so funny with this response lmao. Some people need to touch some f****** grass and just leave them the hell alone fr and stop speculating about their every move. They seem genuinely happy and interested in each other,” one fan wrote on Reddit.

“i love how she’s calling people out that think it’s PR. i’m so sick of people online calling every celeb relationship PR, or calling it PR just cause they don’t like the relationship,” another fan wrote on Reddit.

Meanwhile, others admitted Ballerini should ignore those commenting on her new relationship.

“She’d be better off just…. Not responding. Live your life girl, you gotta act above gossip sites like that,” wrote a Reddit user.

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How Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes got together

Ballerini and Stokes were first seen together in public in January. On Feb. 22, Ballerini appeared on the podcast Call Her Daddy where she discussed her newfound relationship with Stokes. It turns out Ballerini is the one who made the first move.

“I’ve never seen the show, but I just knew of him and yeah so I followed him and he followed me. And I just swan dove right on in,” Ballerini said.

She continued, “His handle is ‘hichasestokes’ and I just said, ‘Hi Chase Stokes.’”

Given that Stokes and Ballerini have continued posting about their relationship, it is clear the two do not care about the rumors surrounding them.