Kayla Nicole appears to throw shade at Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift in Super Bowl advert, sparks widespread online reaction

What began as a tongue-in-cheek Super Bowl advert quickly turned into one of the night’s most talked-about celebrity moments. Kayla Nicole, the former girlfriend of NFL star Travis Kelce, made a surprise appearance in a commercial that many viewers believe carried a pointed message aimed at both Kelce and his fiancée, Taylor Swift.

The advert, which aired during the 2026 Super Bowl, featured comedian Tiffany Haddish and NBA player Ben Simmons promoting a fictional firm designed to help people recover emotionally from very public break-ups. While the premise leaned heavily into humour, Nicole’s cameo added a layer of intrigue that sent social media into overdrive.



In the clip, Haddish opens with a mock-serious pitch about emotional injuries caused by high-profile relationships. Simmons follows up with a knowing jab about exes “subbing you in commercials”, a line that instantly drew comparisons to recent celebrity advertising feuds. When Nicole appears on screen, she dryly critiques the duo’s services, joking about her own experience as a so-called “ex-girlfriend” and questioning whether they could truly make the label disappear quickly enough.

For many viewers, the timing felt deliberate.

Nicole dated Kelce on and off for nearly five years before the couple split in 2022. Since then, Kelce’s relationship with Swift has placed his personal life firmly under a global spotlight. Nicole, meanwhile, has been candid about the scrutiny and online commentary she has faced since their breakup.

Her lines in the advert were brief but memorable, especially when Simmons repeatedly corrected her phrasing to “swiftly”, a detail fans quickly interpreted as a subtle nod to Swift herself. Whether intentional or not, the exchange added fuel to speculation that the advert was doing more than selling an app.



Kelce attended the Super Bowl as a spectator this year, having played in the previous three championships with the Kansas City Chiefs. He was also present for the presentation of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, though he otherwise kept a low profile throughout the night.

This was not the first time Nicole appeared to respond indirectly to narratives surrounding Kelce’s current relationship. Last year, she shared a cryptic social media post after fans speculated that a track on Swift’s album referenced Kelce’s past romances. The message was widely read as a refusal to be compared or dragged into someone else’s story.

The Sleeper advert followed a similar pattern. Lighthearted on the surface, yet layered enough to spark debate about agency, narrative control and who gets to define the aftermath of a celebrity breakup.



By the time the final whistle blew, Nicole had arguably secured one of the Super Bowl’s most effective moments, not through spectacle, but through subtext. In an event dominated by massive budgets and star power, her brief appearance stood out for a different reason. It reminded viewers that sometimes, the quietest lines create the loudest conversations.