Kayla Nicole Posts About Choosing ‘Joy’ Hours After Ex Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift’s Engagement Announcement

Kelce was in an on-and-off relationship with Nicole for five years before they broke up in 2022

Kayla Nicole is choosing joy.

Following the announcement that her ex-boyfriend Travis Kelce is engaged to global pop superstar Taylor Swift on Aug. 26, the on-air reporter reposted a video to her Instagram Stories of actress Tracee Ellis Ross discussing why she chooses “joy.”

“I think joy is different from happiness,” Ross said in the clip. “Happiness is something you can get at 7-Eleven, and joy is something that you earn and work for and takes practice.”

“I think joy is an attitude,” Ross continued. “I think joy is a perspective and I think joy is a lens through which I live and look at my life.”

“Read about this very concept years ago in a book called ‘Choose Joy: Because Happiness Isn’t Enough’. I aspire! So so good,” Nicole added on her Instagram Stories.

The “Cruel Summer” singer and the NFL player, both 35, announced their engagement in a joint post on Instagram alongside several photos from their floral-filled garden proposal.

“Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married 🧨,” Swift wrote in the caption.

The pair’s love story first sparked in July 2023 when Kelce attended Swift’s Eras Tour at Arrowhead Stadium, where he plays football for the Kansas City Chiefs. A few weeks after attending the concert, Kelce revealed that he had actually tried — and failed — to meet Swift.

“I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her,” he said on his New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce podcast around the same time.

A few months later, Swift and Kelce prompted dating rumors when she made an appearance at his Chiefs game in September 2023, watching from his suite alongside his mother Donna. She was even captured cheering as Kelce scored a touchdown, and the two were seen walking out together after the game.

Prior to his relationship with Swift, the Chiefs player dated Nicole in an on-again, off-again relationship for five years before they split in 2022. The pair first met over Instagram, Nicole revealed.

“He had been following me and insta-flirting for a few months,” she said in a since-deleted Instagram Story captured by TMZ.

Following rumors of their breakup, including those that they parted ways for financial reasons, the Ohio native set the record straight during an interview with The Pivot Podcast in January 2023.

“Don’t buy into that s—,” Kelce said to the hosts.

Since then, Nicole has made an effort to “move forward” with her life, a decision that included unfollowing friends Brittany and Patrick Mahomes on Instagram.

“I do think it’s important to publicly address this because I did publicly unfollow people,” Nicole told PEOPLE. “The reality is I know these people in real life. And so, in real life, I’ve communicated to these people why I’ve had to publicly make the decisions that I made.”