Kayla Nicole insists that her viral Halloween costume wasn't a shot at Taylor Swift, but that wasn't enough to quiet the masses online. Now, the inspiration behind the costume has weighed in. "I like to think that she was just paying homage to me and did it for Halloween," Toni Braxton told Entertainment Tonight in an interview shared on Friday, November 21. Nicole, 34, dated Kansas City Chiefs tight end and Swift's fiancé, Travis Kelce, from 2017 to 2022. She made waves on Halloween when she recreated Braxton's look from the music video for her hit 2000 single "He Wasn't Man Enough." Travis Kelce's Ex Kayla Nicole Deletes X Account Amid Controversy In the Instagram carousel she shared on Halloween night, Nicole is seen dancing and lip-synching to the lines, "Did you know about us back then? / Do you know I dumped your husband, girlfriend? I'm not thinking 'bout him / But you married him / Do you know I made him leave? / Do you know he begged to stay with me? / He wasn't man enough for me." When ET's Kevin Frazier told Braxton, 58, that the post came amid speculation that Swift, 35, referenced Nicole on her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, she replied, "Oh, that's bitter." Despite the timing, Nicole has been adamant that she was not shading Swift. "I feel like Halloween is an opportunity for you to let your creative flag fly," she explained on the November 7 episode of her "The Pre-Game" podcast. "People will try to project their own narratives, but for me, personally, I am not in the business of tearing other women down. I'm in the business of celebrating them, and for me, this moment was about celebrating an icon in my culture." Travis Kelce and Ex Kayla Nicole Phone Clip Resurfaces Post 'Opalite' Shade She said on her podcast four days prior before that the outfit was actually inspired by a "very specific" childhood memory - one that, ironically, involves a different girl named Taylor. "I had a white best friend. Her name was Taylor," she said. "And she [had] the only house I could go over to as a kid because my mom didn't play them type of games. I specifically remember driving home from private school in my uniform in the back of a paddy wagon with Taylor, and her mom was playing this song." For her, it was an "a-ha" moment, thinking, "Wow, white people listen to Black people music as well." Swifties have theorized since The Life of a Showgirl's October 3 release that Swift took a shot at Nicole in her song "Opalite." The lyrics seem to reference a viral clip from when Nicole and Kelce, 36, were dating, in which Kelce could be heard imploring her to get off her phone. "You couldn't understand it / Why you felt alone / You were in it for real / She was in her phone / You were just a pose," Swift sings. "And don't we try to love love / And give it all we got / You finally left the table / And what a simple thought / You're starving 'til you're not."