Kayla Nicole won Halloween with a double entendre for the ages.
The 33-year-old sports journalist and TV personality took to Instagram to show off her ode to the music video for Toni Braxton’s “He Wasn’t Man Enough,” and fans immediately picked up the shade she was throwing by the song choice and the video.
“She’s an icon. She’s a legend. She’s @tonibraxton circa 2000. #Halloween25,” Kayla captioned her video, splicing together clips from the original “He Wasn’t Man Enough” video and her rendition, down to the dress, the choreography and more.
The costume was such a hit that Braxton jumped in Kayla’s comments with her stamp of approval: “You killed it, mama!”
Others commented on the “petty” Kayla tapped into by the song’s selection, an apparent dig at her ex, Travis Kelce and his now fiancée, Taylor Swift. Kayla chose one specific lyric of the 2000s hit to drive the point home: “Do you know I dumped your husband, girlfriend?” and “Do you know he begged to stay with me? He wasn’t man enough for me.”
The move comes less than a month after fans tried to piece together lyrics from Swift’s “Opalite,” song from her “The Life of a Showgirl” album, singing, “You couldn’t understand it, why you felt alone, You were in it for real, she was in her phone, And you were just a pose,” alluding to a since-deleted video when Kelce and Kayla were dating.
Kayla and Kelce were together on-again and off-again for five years, starting in 2017 after Kayla sent Kelce a DM on Instagram. The couple broke up in August 2020 and later reconciled before splitting for good in 2022. Kelce would later begin dating Swift in 2023, culminating in the Kansas City Chiefs player proposing to her before the start of the NFL season.
Since Kayla and Kelce split, she’s been the subject of online harassment and more. During a confessional on an episode of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” she expressed her frustration with how the world perceived her.
“Going through a public breakup, just to be frank, it’s been overwhelming. I’ve never experienced anything like it,” she began. “I’m a very confident person, but dealing with trolls or just hate online, I constantly feel like I’m in a state of vulnerability. I would love to be in a headspace where I’m just not affected at all.”
Kayla has made it a habit to show out for Halloween. Last year, she re-created Ye’s “Fade” video featuring Teyana Taylor, paying “homage” to Taylor despite fans believing Kayla once dated Taylor’s ex-husband, Iman Shumpert. In 2023, she took on Ciara’s “Ride” to pay homage to the singer-dancer-entrepreneur.
