With Chicago Fire heating up Kelly Severide’s love life once again, we’re looking back at the very long romantic history of Taylor Kinney’s character.
A recurring theme on Chicago Fire for Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) has been his seemingly never-ending parade of relationships and flings with different women. We’ve been on the roller coaster of love, lust and loss with Severide for 6 seasons now, and every time we think Kelly may finally be making some good decisions, something invariably goes awry.
Chicago Fire fans have watched Severide go through everything that a TV character could in the romance department: shallow hook-ups, a broken engagement, a surprise marriage, a girlfriend’s death and more. And his romantic turmoil is about to become a hot topic on Chicago Fire once again.
Just when it looks like there may be hope for the slow burning flame between Severide and his BFF slash rooommate Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) to ignite, Stella’s boyfriend Zach (Daniel Di Tomasso) wants her to meet his family, and it’s been confirmed that Severide’s ex-girlfriend Renee Royce (Sarah Shahi) will walk back into his life by the end of Chicago Fire season 6.
Is Severide finally ready to fully commit to the long game and keep his focus on a potential relationship with Stella, or will he jump ship and test the waters in familiar territory whenever Renee shows up and bats her eyelashes at him again? We’ll see what the future holds as far as Stellaride when Chicago Fire returns on March 22, but to get you ready for the romantic drama, One Chicago Center is taking a look back at Severide’s many exes.
Click through the following slideshow to recount all of Kelly Severide’s romantic relationships on Chicago Fire. Will any of these women wind up being “the one” or will this season lead to more of the same?
1. Renee Whaley
When we first met Kelly Severide, his romantic life was already a source of drama. Fans learned that he had been engaged to Renee Whaley (Kelli Barrett) before Chicago Fire began, and life got a little complicated during season 1 when Renee’s brother Eric (recurring guest star Shane McRae) brother was reassigned to Firehouse 51.
Eric assumed that something Severide had done was the reason why Kelly and Renee had never made it to the altar, when in reality Severide called off the wedding when he discovered Renee
had cheated on him with an ex-boyfriend. Not wanting to see her reputation damaged despite having a perfectly good reason to, he had kept that a secret from Renee’s family and let himself take the blame.
But after an intense argument, Severide finally told Eric the truth, and admitted that he still had feelings for Renee. Yet that would cause him more pain than anything else, because Chicago Fire revealed that life had not been kind to Renee after the breakup. She had become estranged from her family, was working as a stripper and was fighting a drug addiction.
When he tracked her down, Severide once again chose to guard Renee’s secrets and told her brother that she was doing well—a move that backfired when Renee attempted suicide. In the end, Kelly’s commitment to helping his former fiancée despite her betrayal paid off when she reunited with her family, but one could point to Renee Whaley as the reason why Severide has never gotten close to seriously settling down again.
2. Renee Royce
In the same season that he was dealing with his ex-fiancee’s issues, Severide just couldn’t stay away from high-maintenance women named Renee. Midway through Chicago Fire season 1, the show had him meet Renee Royce (recurring guest star Sarah Shahi) when he saved her from a car accident. Renee wasted no time in making clear that she wanted to get to know him personally, not just professionally.
Reluctant at first, Severide eventually agreed to go on a date with the persistent Renee and they wound up hitting it off, although Kelly at first called her “Royce” because the name Renee still hit a bit of a raw nerve. But he fell in love with Renee Number Two anyway, which led to the first (but not the last) time he considered breaking up with his city to chase a woman.
Renee caused two headaches for Severide. First, she accepted a job in Spain and tried to get him to leave with her, and he thought about it but turned her down. Then she came back pregnant, and swore it was his baby—no surprise, it wasn’t. She’d had a one-night stand just weeks after she’d arrived in Madrid without him.
Fans know now that Sarah Shahi will reprise the role of Renee Royce later this season, so what fresh drama will she bring the third time she arrives on Chicago Fire? Hopefully Severide has the sense to not let her break his heart again this time around, but you never know with him.
3. Erin Lindsay
When Chicago PD entered the One Chicago universe, Severide’s love life was an early connection between the two shows. In a short but intense relationship that many One Chicago fans hoped might last a lot longer, Severide dated Detective Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) during Chicago Fire season 2 and into season 3.
The two met when Lindsay was assigned to investigate the abduction of Kelly’s half-sister Katie Nolan (recurring guest star Brittany Curran), and while their relationship heated up quickly, it also quickly became strained. Pressure first built when Lindsay was forced to investigate Severide’s possible involvement in the disappearance of the man who had abducted and sexually assaulted his sister.
While that eventually went away, the death of Severide’s best friend Leslie Shay also put the brakes on his romantic relationship with Lindsay. Following Shay’s murder, Severide spiraled out of control, isolating himself from everyone at Firehouse 51 and his girlfriend. Lindsay became increasingly frustrated with the distance, and broke up with him after he missed multiple dates, telling him that while she could empathize with him, she could not “be the girl sitting alone in a restaurant waiting.”
Things worked out for the best, though, as Lindsay moved on to another popular relationship with her partner Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), and the Severide-Lindsay friendship lasted right up to the end of her tenure on Chicago PD. At least Linseride fans will always have this:
4. Brittany Baker
Following his breakup with Lindsay and still upset over Shay’s death, Severide subsequently left Chicago and headed for Las Vegas, hoping to put his troubles behind him. That’s how Chicago Fire walked him into a huge cliche: the spontaneous Sin City marriage.
Once arriving in Vegas, Severide wasn’t alone for long. He ran into a woman named Brittany Baker (recurring guest star Serinda Swan) at the craps table, and the two noticed each other right away. Hoping some of her luck would rub off on him, Kelly asked Brittany for help playing the game, and after hitting twice in a row, he laid one serious kiss on her and the rest was history. He returned to work in Chicago the next week far happier than he’d been in a long time, and sporting a brand new wedding ring!
Although everyone else at Firehouse 51 was more than a bit shocked and even more skeptical, Severide and Brittany were thrilled with their quickie marriage, if not fully prepared for the reality of tying the knot. But their newlywed glow didn’t last long, as Brittany became increasingly more irrationally anxious about Severide being injured on the job. Her concerns made her a distraction for her new husband as he tried to reassure her while still taking the risks that make Severide the hero we know and love.
Eventually, Severide and Brittany realized that what drew them together was not true love but the fact that they were both suffering from the extreme grief of having lost a loved one – Severide losing Shay and Brittany losing her sister in a car accident that she blamed herself for. They were both looking at each other as an escape: Brittany was Severide’s chance to rescue someone and Severide was Brittany’s escape from the guilt she felt. They mutually agreed that although they did care about each other, the marriage should end.
But hey, at least she can say she’s the only person who’s ever put a ring on Kelly Severide’s finger.
5. April Sexton
In a slight feeling of deja vu, the introduction of Chicago Med to the One Chicago franchise came with another romantic entanglement for Kelly Severide, just as his love life had crossed into the start of Chicago PD. This one, however, delved more into his past.
April Sexton (Yaya DaCosta) first made an appearance in Chicago Fire season 3, when their mutual friend Scott Rice (recurring guest star Warren Christie) transferred into Firehouse 51 and told Severide that his childhood friend April was working at Chicago Med. Having not seen her since high school, Severide went to the hospital to surprise April and then invited her to come out with him to Molly’s.
Fans found out that April’s family had taken Severide in while both were teenagers, and the two had a brief relationship then, but the pair had been driven apart when Severide started acting out and pushed April away.
Now several years later, they were able to mend fences when Kelly took responsibility for his hurtful, immature behavior and admitted to April how much he really had cared for her—even showing her that he had saved the tickets to an Eminem concert they had gone to together all those years ago. That was enough for Severide and April to share a kiss, but they never went beyond that.
As a main character on Chicago Med, April was engaged to Tate Jenkins (Deron J. Powell), the father of one of her ED patients before calling off their wedding and getting together with her current boyfriend, Dr. Ethan Choi (Brian Tee). Like Lindsay and Severide, April and Severide were better off as friends. But this was where we started to wonder how many women in One Chicago Kelly Severide didn’t have some kind of history with.
6. Stella Kidd
Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) is Kelly Severide’s most recent love interest, and also the one who’s been through the most ups and downs in their relationship. Stella took over Scott Rice’s old locker at Firehouse 51, and Chicago Fire revealed that she’d previously had sparks with Severide, when he showed up at her house one night—much to the consternation of her then-husband!
While the two built a new relationship as friends and colleagues, the show kept the idea of their being more than that just under the surface. Chicago Fire season 5 opened with the two of them sleeping together and Severide having to physically defend Stella from the aforementioned crazy ex. But when the show subsequently introduced the character of Anna Turner (Charlotte Sullivan), it was as if Stellaride was dropped before it even really began.
Stella hung in there with Severide through the whole Severanna arc as his BFF, and even said that she encouraged the relationship (despite the promos wanting to drum up a love triangle). But now with Anna out of the picture, Chicago Fire has gone back to teasing us with Stellaride. Except now it’s her who has a third wheel—she’s dating Hazmat officer Zach (recurring guest star Daniel Di Tomasso). Will Severide and Stella ever get their act together, or will this be the romance that got short-changed?
7. Anna Turner
By the time we came to Chicago Fire season 5, Severide was looking for a way to achieve some lasting happiness. But rather than continue with Stella, the show introduced the new character of Anna Turner (Charlotte Sullivan), who went from being Severide’s bone marrow recipient to his next girlfriend.
Severide’s old colleague Jeff Clarke (Jeff Hephner) had been treating Anna at Chicago Med, and asked Severide to consider being her bone marrow donor. That would have been a touching story on its own, but Chicago Fire turned it romantic by having the two fall in love during the process. Even though Anna went back to Springfield when she recovered, Severide still chased her down and the two began dating.
Their storyline was reminiscent of Severide’s involvement with Renee Royce in Chicago Fire season 1, as again Severide considered leaving town in order to be with his girlfriend. He was conveniently offered a position as a Battalion Chief with the Springfield Fire Department, but was spared from having to actually choose when Anna decided she’d up and move to Chicago instead.
As if that wasn’t impulsive enough, the Severanna storyline took several sharp turns, first with Anna running back to Springfield and breaking up with Kelly, then Severide going to Springfield again to get her back. It was there he learned that her cancer had returned, and this time it was not going to be defeated. Chicago Fire broke Severide’s heart when it killed Anna, but his period of mourning didn’t last very long.
8. Hope Jacquinot
One Chicago fans wanted Kelly Severide to emerge from his serious relationship with Anna as a stronger person and not revert to his old coping mechanisms of alcohol and meaningless flings. But that optimism was dashed immediately at the start of this season when Chicago Fire brought in Hope Jacquinot (recurring guest star Eloise Mumford).
Hope immediately zeroed in on a vulnerable Severide, blatantly hitting on him and to be honest, he wasn’t exactly fighting the idea. She was soon seen in his shower and becoming his next hookup. Not only that, but Hope decided to stay in Chicago and landed herself a job with the civilian staff at Firehouse 51!
Though Hope broke up with Severide after being hired, saying that she didn’t want their affair to conflict with her new job, it was clear that she still had some kind of a thing for him—because she definitely had it out for his roommate and ex-girlfriend Stella. Stella didn’t trust Hope either, at least in part because of her own unresolved feelings for Severide, and the battle was on between them.
Hope intentionally hid Stella’s paycheck, enabling her to position herself as the hero of the day when she went the extra mile to replace something she’d had all along. When that went over well, she then schemed to get Stella transferred out of Firehouse 51. That almost worked—until some digging from Severide and Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer) uncovered the truth.
Hope was fired for her misdeeds, but is still causing trouble as the most recent episode of Chicago Fire included a mention of her harassing her now ex-friend Sylvie Brett (Kara Killmer) on social media. Let’s hope she doesn’t come back into town again, because neither Brett nor Severide will want to see her.
9. And the rest…
Aside from the women we’ve just mentioned, Severide has had his fair share of one-night stands and flings over the course of Chicago Fire‘s history. This season alone, it was mentioned that he’d been comforted by “half the women in Chicago” after the death of Anna Turner. And fans also saw one woman walk out of Severide’s apartment in another episode, after which he later admitted to Casey that he’d upset her when he hadn’t been able to remember her name!
Kelly Severide is easily the most promiscuous character on Chicago Fire, and within the whole One Chicago universe. That inability to keep a relationship together, or keep his hands to himself, is the reason why One Chicago fans are interested in seeing him settle down. He’s a good guy who does have his demons, but he’s worked on most of them and is definitely a catch. So why can’t he get a hold of his romantic life?
Fans will have to watch and see if Severide is able to make things work again with Stella Kidd, or if he’ll be tempted to rekindle his past relationship with Renee Royce when she returns, in the remaining episodes of Chicago Fire season 6. Whatever happens, it’s clear that Kelly Severide will always be a hit with the ladies!
Next: Miranda Rae Mayo talks Severide and Stella
What do you think of Kelly Severide’s love life? Are you looking forward to what’s ahead for him in this season of Chicago Fire? Any idea who he might finally settle down with, or if he’ll settle down? Tell us in the comments!
Chicago Fire airs Thursdays at 10/9c on NBC.