Kelsea Ballerini’s ex Chase Stokes calls Morgan Evans a sad excuse for masculinity
Kelsea Ballerini’s players do.
The 32-year-old country singer’s ex-boyfriend, actor Chase Stokes, has spoken out in defense of the “Cowboys Cry Too” singer after her ex-husband, Morgan Evans, opened up about their divorce while on Bobby Bones’ podcast, “The BobbyCast.”
“This is about the saddest excuse for masculinity I’ve ever seen. Get a king’s life,” Stokes wrote in a since-deleted comment on an Instagram post with a clip from the podcast.
Bones later shared a screenshot of the deleted comment on his Instagram as part of a video in which he defended Evans. The host emphasized that Evans has never spoken publicly about his divorce, saying “I thought it went very well” on the podcast and that he was “very gracious in his explanation and his version of events.”
In response to the criticism, Evans posted a series of photos on his Instagram of himself doing odd manly things, including carrying a heavy refrigerator and chopping wood, with the caption, “Feeling pretty manly today.”
Even Bones got into the comments section, writing, “I laughed.”
After the split between his two partners, Ballerini put in his two cents, writing a meme on his Instagram story on Friday, saying, “And for a woman, maybe an af-king break?”
While on the Bones podcast, Evans said hearing Ballerini was seeking a divorce was unexpected.
“I didn’t expect that conversation, no,” he said. “Maybe that was because I didn’t know anything, but I wasn’t. It surprised me. The whole time it’s so blurry. It’s almost like someone else, just sitting there. I just look back and say, ‘Oh, my God.’
Evans and Ballerini were married for nearly five years before she announced her divorce in August 2022.
After their divorce, Ballerini released a six-song EP, “Rolling Up the Welcome Mat,” in February 2023, which she confirmed was about her breakup with Evans.
Shortly after her divorce from Evans, Ballerini began dating the “Outer Banks” star, and she and Stokes made their red carpet debut together at the CMT Music Awards in April 2023.
The two separated in September 2025 before briefly reconciling in December 2025.
“It looked more amazing than it was. And that was a lesson for us,” he told Entertainment Tonight about their reconciliation.
“But he – I love him so much. We’ve been together for a long time now and we’ve done a lot of life together. And I love love, and I believe in it. And again, I’m a big believer in finding things that make you happy and finding things that you want to work on and figuring out when the rubber meets the road, how to make that work.”
Despite wanting to make things work, he and Stokes called it off early in 2026.
