The ‘Hawk Tuah’ girl, Haliey Welch, finally revealed her boyfriend ‘Pookie’ on a November 12 episode of her ‘Talk Tuah’ podcast after months of speculation.
Haliey Welch has been stirring up relationship rumors since her viral TikTok interview back in June 2024 when she shouted out a certain ‘Pookie.’
Since then, she’s been somewhat open about her relationship status with the mystery guy, saying they were “off and on” for three years but recently started “getting serious” with each other after she got famous.
Who is Pookie?
Four months later, Welch finally unveiled ‘Pookie,’ real name Kelby Blackwell, on an episode of her Talk Tuah podcast, where he opened up about his initial thoughts on her viral video and how their relationship started.
Blackwell is a plumber by trade who says he enjoys his small-town lifestyle and prefers not to get involved in the high-profile celebrity life that his girlfriend has fallen into.
“I didn’t really know what to say,” he said about Welch’s TikTok interview. “I just knew that I woke up one morning to a Snapchat from you that said, ‘You’re probably gonna see something this morning that you don’t wanna see, just disregard it.’ And I opened up my TikTok and there it was, all over the place.’”
At the time the video was taken, the two weren’t actually official, but they started “hooking up” in 2023, a couple of months after Blackwell had gotten out of a two-year relationship.
However, he says he was still “working on himself” and healing after the breakup, not wanting to “put the hurt onto [Haliey]” right away. This is the reason he didn’t become official with her until more recently — something that runs contrary to many fan theories online, which claim that he only went public with her because of her fame.
“You can believe what you want at the end of the day,” Blackwell said. “I know what I feel in my heart and that I love Haliey, and that’s just that.”
He also admitted that he’s a “very jealous person” by nature and sometimes gets worked up over people sliding into his girlfriend’s DMs — but the two demonstrated that they have a healthy relationship in spite of her fame, often poking fun at each other with embarrassing stories.