Chace Crawford and Kelsey Merritt go Instagram official!
On July 18, 2025, Chace Crawford—best known for playing Nate Archibald in Gossip Girl and The Deep in The Boys—quietly rang in his 40th birthday.
The Hollywood actor didn’t post anything on his main feed, but he did reshare a string of birthday greetings on his Instagram Stories, featuring tributes from friends, castmates, and colleagues.
But it was the last two Stories that got the internet talking.
At the tail end of his birthday Story carousel, Chace dropped two particularly telling images.
The first showed Filipina-American model Kelsey Merritt carrying a cake that read "Happy Birthday, Darling," with number-shaped candles 4 and 0 on top of it.
The second image is a cozy mirror selfie of the two together.
Chace stood behind Kelsey, one hand on her waist, while she held the phone to capture the shot.
Read: Kelsey Merritt and Chace Crawford's kiss fuels dating rumors
DID CHACE JUST HARD LAUNCH HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH KELSEY?
By the pop culture playbook, a hard launch typically means posting a partner's face—clearly, deliberately—on your feed, often with a romantic caption or tag.
A soft launch, on the other hand, tends to be subtler: think shadows, hands, dinner dates, or posts with no identifying markers.
Chace’s birthday Story falls somewhere between.
It wasn’t on the feed, but it was far from ambiguous. Her face was clear. His arm was around her. The word "darling" was written in frosting.
So, if this wasn’t a hard launch, it was at the very least a "soft launch with zero deniability."
Speculations about Chace and Kelsey’s possible romance in November 2024, after eagle-eyed followers noticed they had recently followed each other on Instagram.
It raised eyebrows, especially since Kelsey—who previously dated Olympic swimmer Conor Dwyer—hadn’t been linked to anyone publicly for some time.
The dating buzz only intensified in April 2025, when the two were reportedly spotted sharing a kiss during an outing in New York City.
Kelsey was previously linked to Jared Leto in 2022, and James Marden in 2023.
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