The relationship between Lieutenant Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and Lieutenant Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney), affectionately known as Stellaride, is the emotional cornerstone of NBC’s Chicago Fire. Over the years, they’ve navigated breakups, career ambition, arson investigations, and a beautiful wedding. Yet, even as they face new chapters, including their emotional journey into parenthood—initially with the devastating experience of a miscarriage followed by their current role as foster parents to teen Isaiah—a familiar tension has resurfaced.
In a candid interview, star Miranda Rae Mayo revealed the complex emotional dynamic currently affecting Stella: she is “jealous” of Severide. This isn’t the petty jealousy rooted in romantic rivalry from earlier seasons; it’s a deep-seated, painful reaction stemming from their current shared challenges, particularly concerning their foster son and the professional demands each of them is facing.
Mayo’s insight sheds light on a storyline that is designed to test Stellaride’s bond in a brand new way, forcing Stella to confront unresolved personal trauma related to abandonment and control.
👨👦 The Core Conflict: Jealousy Over Isaiah
The most potent source of Stella’s current jealousy, according to Miranda Rae Mayo, centers on their role as foster parents to Isaiah (Hero Hunter). Their decision to foster a troubled teen has introduced a sharp imbalance into their home life.
The Effortless Bond
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Severide’s Success: Mayo highlighted that Severide has connected with Isaiah in a way that appears effortless and immediate. Severide has a natural ease in the mentor role, perhaps drawing on his own tumultuous past with his father, Benny, and his own experiences as a troubled young man. He seems to understand Isaiah’s trauma and emotional needs instinctively.
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Stella’s Struggle: Stella, despite being the one who initiated the fostering idea and who leads the Girls on Fire mentorship program, has struggled to establish a similar rapport with Isaiah. Her interactions have often been fraught with misunderstanding and tension, such as when Isaiah lashed out at her after the Herrmann house fire.
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The Actor’s Explanation: Mayo explained that seeing Severide succeed where she is failing is the root of the jealousy. It’s not a romantic threat, but an identity threat. Stella prides herself on her ability to connect with and guide troubled youth, and having her husband do it better makes her question her own abilities and effectiveness as a leader and a potential mother.
The Trauma of Abandonment
Mayo has previously detailed how Stella’s character is driven by deep abandonment issues, stemming from being orphaned at a young age.
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Seeking Control: This background manifests in an “impulse to try and control whatever situation she’s in.” The jealousy over Isaiah is rooted in her loss of control over the dynamic of her own family and her inability to immediately fix the problem.
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The Unwanted Feeling: The rejection or misunderstanding from Isaiah triggers Stella’s deepest fears: that she cannot be the loving, capable figure she desperately wants to be, and that her attempts at forming a family bond are failing, causing her to feel isolated even while standing next to her husband.
🚒 The Professional Imbalance: Severide’s OFI Draw
Stella’s professional journey also contributes to this feeling of jealousy, particularly regarding Severide’s recurring pull toward Office of Fire Investigation (OFI) and arson cases.
The Mentor vs. The Arsonist
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Severide’s Fascination: Severide’s deep-seated fascination with arson investigations often pulls him away from the firehouse and from Stella, sometimes for extended periods. This focus on an independent career track makes Stella worry about a relapse into old patterns of poor communication and emotional withdrawal, behaviors that nearly ended their relationship in the past.
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The Career Divergence: Stella has worked incredibly hard to become a Lieutenant and run the successful Girls on Fire program. She is driven by the desire to be a respected, stable presence at Firehouse 51. When Severide’s work takes him out of that stable environment, Stella can feel left behind, or that her commitment to the house is being undermined by his solo ambitions.
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The Stakes are High: After the heartbreak of their miscarriage, the emotional stakes around their careers are higher. Both are facing greater risks—Severide in dangerous arson investigations, and Stella in leadership calls. Stella’s worry about Severide being promoted to a full-time OFI role, which would limit their shared shifts, reflects a desire to keep her husband close in the face of so much uncertainty, a desire she may feel ashamed of and therefore label as “jealousy.”
🔑 The Stellaride Test: A Non-Romantic Conflict
The importance of this “jealousy” storyline is that it allows Stellaride to evolve beyond common TV relationship tropes.
Growth Through Adversity
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Beyond External Threats: Their relationship has survived attempts by exes and rival co-workers. This new conflict is internal—a struggle within Stella herself that Severide must help her navigate. It proves the maturity of their marriage by focusing on a deep-seated emotional issue rather than a cheap romantic plot device.
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A Call for Communication: As Mayo and Kinney have often stated in past interviews, Stellaride’s success relies on communication. Stella’s current jealousy is a difficult emotion to articulate; it’s not rational, which makes Severide’s response crucial. He must recognize that her feelings are not a reflection of his actions, but a reaction to her own sense of vulnerability and fear of isolation.
The show is using the foster arc with Isaiah and the high professional demands to explore the complicated truth that even the most stable relationships are tested when one partner feels outshone or excluded from a crucial shared success. Stella Kidd’s journey in Season 8 and beyond will be defined by whether she can articulate this jealousy, trust her husband, and ultimately find her own unique path to connect with her new family.
💫 Conclusion: The Evolution of Stella Kidd
Miranda Rae Mayo’s revelation that Stella Kidd is currently “jealous” of Severide is a gift to Chicago Fire fans, signaling a nuanced and challenging storyline ahead. This isn’t the easy drama of a love triangle; it’s the profound struggle of a strong woman facing down her deepest insecurities.
The jealousy over Isaiah’s bond with Severide and the pull of Severide’s OFI career forces Stella to confront her lingering trauma and fear of abandonment. For Stellaride to survive this phase, they must communicate with a depth they haven’t needed since their wedding. This internal conflict promises to be one of the most powerful arcs of the upcoming season, further cementing Stella Kidd’s evolution into a complex, resilient, and deeply human leader.
