What you need to know
Madeline Cline and Kelsea Ballerini put an end to this rumor.
The two shut down speculation of a feud by revealing they were hanging out together in a photo they shared on Monday, February 2. In a photo Klein, 28, shared on her Instagram Stories, she and Ballerini, 32, appeared to be smiling with their faces covered.
Madeline Klein/Instagram
This comes a month after the country singer admitted that she had rekindled her relationship with Chase Stokes, who previously dated Klein and co-star in her Outer Banks, after they split in September 2025.
Cline and Stokes, 33, met in 2019 just before they began filming the fan-favorite Netflix series in which they play a couple. The two went public with their relationship in 2020, but ended their relationship in November 2021 less than two years later.
In January 2023, rumors that Ballerini and Stokes were dating sparked after a photo of them hugging each other was shared on social media. They continued to tease their relationship in several interviews and went public with their romance at the CMT Awards in April 2023.
Later that year, Ballerini revealed on the Internet that she and Klein were at odds, stating that they had no bad blood and that their friendship was not “weird.”
“I met her, I talked to her, and I think she’s lovely and extremely talented. And I think the internet did their best to make it really weird, but it just didn’t work for them,” Ballerini explained on an episode of the podcast “Call Her Daddy.”
“I’m so happy to be on set and enjoy the atmosphere with everyone,” she continued. “At the end of the day, I’m a girl’s girl. I don’t buy into bullsh*t, and I especially don’t buy into pop culture’s noisy echo chamber of trying to create something out of nothing. I think they have a great working relationship and I’m excited to be with her. I’m excited.”
Taylor Hill/Getty; Taylor Hill/Film Magic. Monica Schipper/Getty
In 2024, Ballerini once again showed her support for the actress by rating her Outer Banks character on TikTok. When Klein’s face appeared, the I Sit in Parks singer immediately declared, “So hot. So hot.”
“We stun Sarah Cameron and Madeline Cline in this house,” she added.
Stokes also addressed fans speculating about the dynamic between the three. In November 2025, two months after breaking up with the Grammy nominee, TikTok Ballerini responded to a comment referencing him and Klein on a post promoting her EP.
“These comments are truly bizarre,” Stokes wrote. “grow up.”
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The following month, in a New Year’s Eve post, he and Ballerini revealed they were back together.
“What I’ve learned this year is not to take advantage of the most beautiful thing in my 33 years of life, which is fleeting. Take responsibility and learn from your mistakes. Lean into love and say it often,” Stokes wrote in the caption.
Ballerini echoed his sentiments and also hinted that she plans to keep things private from now on. “It’s been a tough year for the mind, a tough year for what’s coming in, and a tough year for the depiction of it that’s out of our control,” he wrote above a photo of him and Stokes embracing against a backdrop of sunset.
“But all I want to say is that the only thing I want to share forever in my personal life is that I truly love Love. I believe in that, I believe in Him, and I believe in breaking patterns.”
“Go ahead and kiss your partner and stop speculating,” Ballerini concluded with a kiss emoji.
