Toni Braxton Reacts To Kayla Nicole’s Halloween Costume

Kayla Nicole ignited much speculation on social media after dressing as Toni Braxton for Halloween and recreating her look from the popular Y2K single “He Wasn’t Man Enough.” Fans immediately believed Nicole was throwing shade at Taylor Swift and her ex-boyfriend, Travis Kelce, with her look and by using a specific part of the Grammy winner’s song. However, Nicole later clarified that she wasn’t aiming to take shots at anyone in particular. But what does Braxton think about it all?

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Braxton weighed in on Nicole’s Halloween costume, giving the 30-year-old the benefit of the doubt.

“I like to think that she was just paying homage to me and did it for Halloween,” Braxton told Kevin Frazier.

When Frazier clarified that many believed Nicole was quite intentional with her costume after there was speculation that Swift wrote about her in her last album, “The Life Of A Showgirl,” Braxton had a little more to say.

“Oh, that’s bitter,” she said with a smirk and a quiet laugh.

For those who might’ve missed it, Nicole had one of the most talked-about Halloween costumes of 2025, sharing a video of herself in Braxton’s iconic, silver dress from the “He Wasn’t Man Enough” video and flawlessly recreating the choreography.

The part that captured many people’s attention, though, was the lyrics Nicole danced over, which said, “What are you thinking? / Do you know about us back then? / Did you know I dumped your husband, girlfriend? / I’m not thinking ’bout him.”

And as the song continued, the chosen lyrics seemed even more pointed, going, “But you married him / Did you know I made him leave? / Do you know he begged to stay with me? / He wasn’t man enough for me.”

On TikTok, Nicole’s video has garnered over 300,000 likes, and on Instagram, nearly 350,000.

Braxton even gave her stamp of approval back in October, writing, “You killed it mama!”

Nicole’s post, of course, came after Swift sang the lyrics, “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,” in her latest single, “Opalite.”

Nicole, who dated Kelce on and off from 2017 to 2022, received significant support from the public, as one user wrote, “She made a whole album obsessing over you, and you STILL got the last cackle. They can come for us, but will never be us.”

But in a recent podcast episode, Nicole directly responded to the claims that she was shading Swift with her look, telling her listeners that she’s not “in the business of tearing women down.”

According to the Pepperdine University alum, she chose to dress as Braxton for the special holiday because of her continued love for the song and Braxton as an artist.

Weeks after Nicole’s video garnered so much attention, she found herself on the opposite side of public adoration, facing backlash from social media users over former tweets of hers that had gone viral.

In some of her old posts, Nicole used horrific language, referring to someone as a “dumb fat Mexican h-e” and mocking an Asian person’s accent.

Nicole also shared reprehensible comments about others’ religion, writing that she’d tell another person “Buddah [sic] isn’t real” if they didn’t stop praying.

It didn’t take long for Nicole to deactivate her X account and issue an Instagram statement apologizing for her “ignorant, hurtful, and completely wrong” language.

“I want to take a moment to sincerely apologize for the hurtful tweets I posted so many years ago,” she wrote. “Seeing them resurface last week has been incredibly difficult, and reading them now, I’m ashamed that I ever thought or spoke that way. They were ignorant, hurtful and completely wrong.”

Nicole added, “The woman I am today would never use those words or express those kinds of views. Over the years, I’ve seen firsthand how cruel and harmful online hate can be, and I would never want to add to that world of pain in any form. I have since deleted those tweets and my X account entirely, because I refuse to keep that energy alive or contribute to a cycle of hate.”

Since then, Nicole has been seen at various events, and most recently, she turned heads on the Ebony Power 100 red carpet in a bold yellow dress, a slicked-back ponytail, and striking high heels. “Special moments from a special night,” she captioned the carousel of images, which featured flicks of her with celebs like Lisa Raye McCoy, Shaquille O’Neal, and Minnesota Lynx players, Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman.