Kayla Nicole, who used to date Travis Kelce, an NFL player, is speaking about the impact of his well-known relationship with Taylor Swift in Season 3 of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.

Nicole, who had an on-and-off relationship with Kelce from 2017 to 2023, shares in the episode airing tonight that dealing with a public breakup was quite “overwhelming.” The situation was made even more challenging for her as her ex-partner swiftly started a new relationship with one of the most renowned women globally.

Expressing her emotions to her fellow recruits, she acknowledges, “I receive a lot of criticism because he is dating a huge superstar.” Nicole then goes on to add, “I genuinely admire her. I believe she possesses immense talent.”

Still, the media attention surrounding Kelce — and, by association, Nicole — has been a mental strain on the model, which why she’s determined to push through the Special Forces recruitment process.

“Being reduced to a headline, to something so small as someone’s ex-girlfriend, I feel like if I complete this, it’ll be a massive impact for myself,” she says in her confessional. “Am I doing enough? Am I enough?”

Nicole further opens up about her past in her one-on-one in the mirror room with the directing staff, who waste no time asking her about her former relationship.

“Yeah, it’s pretty constant. Exhausting,” Nicole says in response to an article in which she begged trolls to “leave her alone” following the release of Swift’s “Tortured Poets Department” album last April.

“It doesn’t matter. I could post about the sky being blue and people will have a response about an ex and their new situation,” she continues, becoming emotional. “It’s inadvertently affecting me to the point where it makes me question my overall value as a person.”

When the DS ask why she’s been questioning herself, Nicole tearfully admits, “I think it’s just the comparison. It’s just on loop. I think I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with it.”

In a moment of understanding, DS Jason Fox offers Nicole some advice.

“There’s a lot of noise out there. What we’re teaching you here is to listen to the 5% of useful information and shut out the 95% of the noise,” he says. “Just stay in the fight. Stay in the game. Don’t lose focus. Don’t let your emotions dictate your actions.”

When DECIDER caught up with DS Billy Billingham and Rudy Reyes ahead of the Season 3 premiere, they teased a change in Nicole following her time in the mirror room.

“She lets her vulnerabilities go,” Billingham said. “From the first couple of days, she was questioning herself and started to lose a little bit of direction. And I think she was probably close to saying, ‘I’m done.’ We did the mirror room and she realized, ‘The world knows everything about me. I don’t care anymore.’ And my God, you’ll see. She then smashes it. She’s a strong woman. But she was enjoying the cold, the wet, the being miserable, being shouted at.”

Reyes then added, “Something snapped. When she went into that freaking mirror room, she was born again. Born again hard.”

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Fox.