Kelsea Ballerini + Chase Stokes Hit a Big Relationship Milestone

Kelsea Ballerini and her boyfriend, Outer Banks star Chase Stokes, have taken a big step in their relationship: They’re officially shacked up.

Ballerini confirmed to People that she and Stokes are living together, saying, “Oh, we’re unpacked, baby!”

• Ballerini and Stokes have been dating since early 2023.
• She has said that their relationship started when she “slid into his DMs” on Instagram.
• Over the past couple of years, Ballerini and Stokes have been fairly public about their relationship. They show up in support for each other at their respective industry events, and often give interviews speaking about big relationship moments, like their first time saying “I love you.”
• Recently, Ballerini tried her hand at acting with a story arc on the ABC series Doctor Odyssey, and she says Stokes supported her as she made a venture into “his world.”

Ballerini’s new album Patterns came out this month. When she first announced the project, she cautioned fans not to expect too many “happy-go-lucky, love, mushy gushy” songs on the project. Instead, she explained, it’s a more holistic deep-dive into her evolution into her 30s, and an examination of the habits and “patterns” in her life: Both the ones that serve her, and the ones that are best left behind.

That being said, it seems that there’s at least one song that speaks to Ballerini’s current status with her boyfriend.

That song is “Baggage,” a track that People pointed to when they asked Ballerini if she and Stokes are co-habitating. “Boy, I know the weight and gravity / Of keychains with same keys / But if you want that welcome mat / Then roll it up with me,” she sings in one line of the song.

Of course, those lyrics are also a nod to Ballerini’s last album Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, which she released early in 2023. Rolling Up the Welcome Mat is Ballerini’s deeply personal, unsparing divorce album: She wrote it in the wake of her 2022 split with Morgan Evans, to whom she was married for nearly five years.

Read More: 8 Brutally Honest Divorce Lyrics From Kelsea Ballerini’s Rolling Up the Welcome Mat

“Baggage” feels personal, too: In its lyrics, she acknowledges all the travel she does for work, and the fact that she was married before. Still, she doesn’t hesitate to say “yes” to settling down with the right person.

Kelsea Ballerini, “Baggage” Lyrics:

I don’t pack light, I travel for a living / And I don’t abide by that 50-lb limit / On that Delta flight out west, I’m there every other Wednesday / But my heart ain’t up in the air / So if you want me

Chorus:

Clear out a drawer, clear out a shelf / I wouldn’t wanna do it with anybody else / Everything that’s heavy, yeah, I check it at the door / Kinda feel like I don’t need it anymore / I got some bones of old skeletons / From the old house at the dead end / I got some baggage, but I’m moving in

We both slept on a mattress with “I love you” people / S–t, I even took it all the way to the steeple / So boy, I know the weight and gravity / Of keychains with same keys / But if you want that welcome mat, then roll it out with me

Repeat Chorus

If you want it, you want it / You know that you got it / To those thoughts in your head / My hand, back pocket of your jeans / Linen sheets in our bed / ‘Cause home is when you’re with me, so…

Repeat Chorus