Kelsea Ballerini Reveals What 'Hot' Chase Stokes Said to Her After They First Kissed: 'Thank God You're Real'

Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes’ love story got off to a steamy start.

Ballerini, 30, opened up to Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy about the first time she met her now-boyfriend in person last January as she spilled the tea on the “hot” first impression he made — and the first kiss they shared.

Cooper, 29, asked the singer to share a “special memory that comes to mind” when she thinks about her and Stokes’ relationship, and Ballerini recalled the first time they met in person, which came after weeks of “texting and Facetiming” following her sliding into his DMs in December 2022.

The two met on Jan. 7, though their first date was meant to be the next day. Ballerini was in L.A. and said that she texted Stokes, 31, that it was “crazy” they were in the same place and not together, to which he replied, “Drop your pin.”

“So he came to this party that I was playing, and I had just gotten done playing. And I was… 'Guys – I’m sweating just thinking about this. I thought I was gonna pass out,'” she shared of her nerves before meeting him for the first time.

“You can have chemistry over the phone but when you see each other you’re like, what’s the height difference, are we… are you… I didn’t know what to do. And so I walked out to his car, and he got out of his Bronco — hot.”

She and Cooper then went back-and-forth calling the Outer Banks star’s choice of car “hot” several times each before Ballerini continued with the story. 

"He hopped out of his Bronco and he did not say a word to me, and he grabbed my face and he kissed me and he pulled my face away and he was like, ‘Thank God you’re real.’ And I was like, ‘Oh.’ ”

Cooper's jaw dropped in response to the steamy moment.

Ballerini said that the memory of their first interaction came to mind because of “how sweet” Stokes was. 

“It was just so redeeming for my experience of men in relationships,” she said, subtly referencing her 2022 divorce from Morgan Evans, which was finalized two months before she met Stokes.

In the 11 months since the couple first met, their love story has blossomed, and the Grammy-nominated singer also chatted with Cooper on Wednesday’s episode about her and Stokes’ sex life — though she remained rather coy on the details.

Ballerini shared that sex was was something that was "very performative and for the other person" in her past relationships, but "it don't be like that anymore."

Of her current sex life, she joked: “I’m having a nice time.”

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When the podcast host asked if the “Penthouse” musician felt a “difference in the quality of sex” as she’s with someone she feels “more emotionally connected to,” Ballerini affirmed that she does.

“I mean, I didn’t understand how it could be a real connector in a relationship. I never understood that,” she said. “I always thought that it was just something that you did because that’s who you do it with. You know? No, no, no — now I realize it’s a connector for people.”

She continued, “The safety it gives you is so beautiful. You get to know yourself and it’s a whole new world.”