It can be a bit dizzying to keep track of Kayla Nicole.
She’s a podcast host. She’s a brand owner. She’s a model. She’s a former WAG.
Let’s just say, she’s a little overwhelmed, too.
“The life of an entrepreneur: there really is no day-to-day schedule,” she tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “That’s probably the hardest part for me.”
And over the last two years — as she’s hustled for her The Pre-Game With Kayla Nicole podcast and wellness brand Tribe Therepē — Nicole (who has nearly 1 million followers on Instagram) has found herself making headlines.
After graduating from Pepperdine University in 2013 with a degree in broadcast journalism, Nicole took up several different roles in sports media. She provided live coverage for ESPN and Barstool on the sidelines of NFL games or courtside at NBA games. And after exchanging a few flirty Instagram DMs, Nicole found herself dating one of football’s highest-profile players.
Nicole and Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce were in an on-and-off-again relationship for five years before breaking up for good in 2022.
When Kelce started dating pop star and his now-fiancée, Taylor Swift, in 2023, Nicole notably came under scrutiny for seemingly unfollowing one of Kelce’s teammates on Instagram and recently for making a sly response to a new Swift track that appears to reference her previous romance with Kelce.
Nicole insists she tries to take the headlines in stride.
“Sometimes I will click an article if I feel the headline is so sensationalized,” she tells PEOPLE. “My mouth almost drops when I see some things about me because you click the link, get to the article, you read the article, and almost nothing about the article supports the headline. It’s pretty disheartening.”
Nicole now tries to keep her romantic life private — and she’s also worked to get to a place where she can largely block out the buzz.
“This has really been years in the making,” says Nicole. “I credit therapy for a lot.”
“Being a public figure is not an easy job,” she continues. “I’ve really had to lean on my mental health routine to really get me through some of the hardest times. And I can say wholeheartedly that starting to go to therapy, having mental health checkpoints that I learned through therapy, and creating my own fitness and wellness routine have really helped me get through some of the hardest times.”
It’s partly why she rebranded her wellness brand, where members can subscribe to a selection of fitness videos hosted by Nicole, from its original name “Strong Is Sexy” to “Tribe Therepē” several years ago. (In 2024, Sports Illustrated reported that the brand changed its name following difficulty acquiring a trademark.)
“I learned very quickly within the past few years that if I prioritize my mental health, my physical health is always going to follow — and that, even if I was in really great physical shape, if I wasn’t prioritizing my mental health, it was kind of just pointless,” she says. “So I switched the brand over to Tribe Therepē with the hopes of really bridging the gap between physical fitness and mental wellness.”
Beyond therapy, Nicole says it’s her community of friends and followers “that know the true me” who help her stay sane when the outside craziness starts creeping in.
Despite any negativity she may face, Nicole says she’s going to continue telling her story on her own terms.
“I have learned that, for me personally, peace is just way more valuable than perception,” she says. “I can’t control the headlines. I can’t control what’s written about me. All that I can control is how I navigate through it.”
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And as of late, Nicole says that has meant getting her feet wet in the world of fashion to show “another side” of herself. Last month, she made her professional debut at New York Fashion Week.
“As a journalist or as a host, storytelling is something that I’m really passionate about,” she tells PEOPLE. “You don’t have to have money to have style, which I feel like I’ve always had, but now that I’ve made a little money, I can play a little bit more in the designer world and have a stylist here or there to help me with some looks.”
While “I typically stay out of the comments and the blogs and things like that,
Kayla Nicole Is Eager to Rewrite Her Reputation (Exclusive)
