Kelsea Ballerini Spills 'Tea' On The Dating Story That 'Haunts Me Forever'

Kelsea Ballerini spilled “the tea” behind a dating experience with a reality TV star that “haunts me” to this day.

Ballerini, 31, played “Cheap Shots” during an interview with Cosmopolitan that made its debut on Tuesday (February 18). The Patterns artist had to either answer a question within a specified time limit or take a shot. Five shots were placed in front of Ballerini at the beginning of each round, and one was considered the “cheap shot.” Ballerini said at the beginning of the interview that she’s “an open book. I overshare for a living. What could go wrong?”

Ballerini couldn’t even finish reading the question before she said this “haunts me forever.”

Cosmo wanted to know, during the second season of Southern Charm, how much did the singer-songwriter pay to go on a date with Craig Conover?

“I don’t remember [how much I bid] because — I know I’m timed, but I have to tell this story to clear this up — I was on radio tour and I was doing a show for the radio station on a boat,” Ballerini explained. “And they were filming Southern Charm on the boat, and I didn’t know that. And so, I was just there playing ‘Love Me Like You Mean It,’ being like ‘hey, radio station, please play my song.’ And then, little did I know, my label had set up the fact that I was going to bid on a date. I didn’t know. ...I get pushed into frame, bid it, got the date, (and) they auctioned it off on the radio station for charity.

“No, [I never went on the date],” Ballerini clarified. “Some winner from the radio station got it.”

A voice off camera told Ballerini she’s “probably better off,” and Ballerini, who celebrated her two-year anniversary with actor Chase Stokes earlier this year, said “yeah. Everything is great as it turned out. But that does still replay often. They got reruns. Lots of ‘em. Sorry to this man.”

Still, Ballerini had to take a drink for that (even though “I gave you the tea,” she pointed out). 

Throughout the interview, the “Baggage” artist also commented on her fashion moments, shared her “most toxic Virgo trait,” revealed one celebrity who initially left her “disappointed” the first time they met, was asked to rank her fellow Voice coaches (Adam Levine, Michael Bublé and John Legend), and shared whether any celebrity has slid into her DMs. Find the full interview here.