Kelsea Ballerini shares first message she sent to Chase Stokes

Recently divorced Kelsea Ballerini has exposed the direct messages she sent that led to her new relationship with actor Chase Stokes.

Country singer Ballerini, 30, celebrated her boyfriend Stokes’ birthday by revealing the first message she ever sent the “Outer Banks” actor.

Her message might not win points for originality, but you can’t say it didn’t work. She messaged Stokes on Instagram at 1 a.m. in December 2022.

“Hi, Chase Stokes,” she wrote.

“Hey, how are you doing?” he replied.

“I’m Kels, nice to meet you,” she wrote back … and the rest is history.

Yes, the messages aren’t salacious but the 1 a.m. time stamp is prime “send flirty direct messages time” and fans were eating it up.

“It is you shooting your shot at 1:07 a.m. for me,” one commented.

“Moral of the story. Shot your shoot,” another fan advised.

“Oh my god the DM slide,” another called out.

The direct message clearly paid off because the famous pair have been together for months now and are very public about their relationship.

The two are constantly in each other’s social media feeds.

Their romance has blossomed in the throes of Ballerini’s very public divorce from Australian country music star Morgan Evans.

The two announced they were getting divorced in August 2022 after being married for five years and explained that their “love and growth” journey had ended.

It all seemed amicable until the pair started releasing their music about their divorce, and things have been messy ever since.

Evans dropped a song “Over for You” which seemed to hint that the divorce completely blindsided him.

“How many times did you say you loved me? When it wasn’t true? I’m just wondering … How long has it been over for you?” he sang.

In response, Ballerini dropped her song “Blindsided” where she sings, “Were you blindsided, or were you just blind?”

It hasn’t ended there, though.

Evans’ break-up ballad includes the lyrics, “I would have searched the whole world over for you. Took a flight the night to be that shoulder for you.”

In response, when Ballerini performed “Blindsided” live on “Saturday Night Live,” she updated the lyrics to take a swipe at his declaration that he would have searched the whole world for her.

“Now you’re singing out loud on the radio. You couldn’t say it to my face. You would’ve searched the whole world over. Yeah, sure, OK,” she crooned.

It has been a moment that has gone on viral on TikTok.

Yet amid all the drama, Ballerini’s relationship with Stokes has thrived.

He has also been spotted at several of her shows, and they’ve even walked red carpets together.

While chatting with “Entertainment Tonight,” Stokes didn’t play it cool when asked about his new girlfriend.

“She seriously is the best human being on planet Earth, and she’s so damn talented,” he said.

Ballerini seems equally enamoured when appearing on “Today” she called him “wonderful” and gushed about him.

“I’m so happy. It’s nice to feel so supported and seen. He’s such a wonderful, wonderful human being.”