Kayla Nicole is currently facing a storm of controversy on social media.
The influencer and former partner of Travis Kelsey disabled her X account on Thursday night. A series of screenshots allegedly featuring Nicole revealed she used racist and homophobic slurs in posts from the early 2010s.
Moreover, many older posts resurfaced, including her Halloween costume, which sparked a significant backlash among fans of Kelsey and Taylor Swift.
Several Swift fans seemed to think Nicole’s costume, inspired by Toni Braxton, was a jab at Swift. This speculation was fueled by references in Swift’s latest album, with some interpreting lyrics from her song “Opalite” as a direct attack on Nicole following Kelsey’s recent release.
In one of the lines, Swift sings: “You didn’t understand / Why you felt so alone / You were really in it / She was in her phone / And you were just a pose.”
So, when Nicole, who had an on-again-off-again relationship with the Chiefs tight end for five years, wore a Braxton-themed costume, many on social media believed she was responding to Swift.
However, during her podcast “Pregame,” Nicole, 34, clarified that her costume was actually inspired by a different Taylor and tied to a “very specific” childhood memory.
“I had a best friend who was white. Her name was Taylor,” she explained. “She had the only house I could visit as a child because my mom was strict about that. I distinctly remember riding home with Taylor in the back of her mom’s car after private school and her mother playing this song.”
That memory struck Nicole, making her think, “Wow, white people listen to black music too.”
