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Kayla Nicole revealed in a new interview that she turned to therapy after her breakup with Travis Kelce last year, which has helped her deal with Travis’ public new relationship with Taylor Swift. “I’m so thankful for therapy because had I not done that, I don’t know how I would be reacting in the moment right now. No clue,” Kayla, 31, told PEOPLE on October 24. The fitness guru explained that she usually relied on working out to release her stress, but that wasn’t enough for her to get over her split from Travis, 34, in the summer of 2022 after they dated on and off for five years.
“Just full transparency, I went through this major breakup, major life change, and I had lost a substantial amount of weight within a very short amount of time,” Kayla shared. “I wasn’t sleeping, I wasn’t eating. I was really abusing melatonin to sleep at night.” She continued, “I’m posting content and people are like, ‘You look so good. Tell us your tricks. You look amazing.’ And I’m like, ‘I’m miserable. I’m miserable. I’m depressed.’ My abs were amazing, I had a six-pack. And it was like, ‘I had never felt so bad in my life.’ ”
“So, I started going to therapy and quickly realized, okay, it’s one thing to be physically fit, but it’s another thing to be mentally fit,” Kayla added. “You could be in the best shape of your life, but mentally, if you are not a healthy person, it’s not going to feel good.” She also shared that she’s learned to focus on “the mental health component of working out” from talk therapy. “I think that when your mind is in a healthy place, your body will follow,” she said.
Kayla told PEOPLE she’s in a much better place today thanks to her therapy sessions. She also revealed the advice she’d give her past self to deal with the ongoing media frenzy over the Travis-Taylor romance. “Buckle the f*** up, sweetie,” she said in the interview. “You thought the worst had already come, but buckle up and take all of the tools right now and put them in your bag because you’re going to need them,” she added.
Kayla previously hinted at how she feels about her ex’s newfound romance in her open letter to Black women that garnered attention from fans. She didn’t mention Travis in the letter, but she did talk about Black women being called “a traitor for falling in love” and the ongoing “backlash and embarrassment” they receive. Since then, Kayla’s made a few posts about living her best life as Travis and Taylor’s relationship escalates. After the football player and the “Cruel Summer” singer made cameos on Saturday Night Live on October 14, she posted a selfie video on Instagram, where she spoke about how well she was doing. “I hope you guys are having a great day. I’m having a fantastic day, thank you so much for asking,” she said.
Kayla and Travis dated on and off from 2017 to 2022, but the Super Bowl winner confirmed he was single at the start of 2023. Over six months later, Travis and Taylor went public with their relationship after she attended several of his football games. Travis recently took the Grammy Award winner on a PDA-filled date night in Kansas City, Missouri after she went to her fourth Chiefs game.
