.

One of country music’s sweethearts and a 2021 Grammy winner, Carly Pearce, has recently addressed one of the toughest times of her life when she admitted that she knew the marriage was a mistake on the day she tied the knot. In her recent interview for Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast, the 33-year-old singer from Kentucky opened up about her 2020 divorce from fellow country singer Michael Ray and revealed that while they had a whirlwind romance that eventually led them down the aisle in 2019, she immediately realized she had married the wrong person.

Pearce, who rose to fame in 2017 with Every Little Thing and Should’ve Known Better, shares some of the sweetest moments of their on and offstage romance before she finally decided it was time to say goodbye to Michael Ray. “I thought he was so cute,” she gushed when she first met him, later to admit she did it also because she “heard he’s the nicest guy in the world.” “I invited him to my No. 1 party for Every Little Thing. Looking back on it, it was hot and heavy lust. It wasn’t love. It was just passionate,” Pearce went on to say.

Pearce went on to reveal that she got married thinking it was going to last forever. “I got married to go the distance. When I married him, it was for the right reasons,” Pearce said. “We both knew what we were doing. We both went into it because we wanted to be with each other, and we truly, at the time, did,” she added. However, as the days passed by, the country singer soon realized they did not have a solid foundation for a long-lasting relationship. “We didn’t have real conversations, and we didn’t really know about each other. We were kind of living this life that wasn’t really reality,” she said.

As she sat down with Bunnie XO to discuss the end of their marriage, Pearce then told her that in a momen,t it became very clear that the relationship was over. “I knew the night I got married that I shouldn’t have,” she said. Luckily, the COVID-19 pandemic also allowed her to take time and process the situation privately. “I think the best thing that ever happened to me was COVID because it allowed me to deal with that in private. I probably would have stayed in it longer if I could have avoided it and not had to. … I was embarrassed when it happened … and I had shame around that and was heartbroken,” Pearce explained.

Divorce, Speculations, and Realization of Self-Worth

In 2020, Pearce filed for divorce from Michael Ray only eight months after the wedding. The Kentucky native says that while she has no desire to get into specifics about their separation, she was clear that the marriage was not the fairytale romance she was hoping it would be. “It wasn’t what I signed up for. It just wasn’t the marriage that I knew I deserved. I knew that very quickly. Plenty happened to where it was very clear to me this was not, this just wasn’t a marriage,” the Kentucky native said.

Pearce briefly touched upon the speculations about her ex-husband cheating on her during the period when they were together. While the singer did not confirm or deny the speculations, she still had to hear the whispers from many people who doubted her and made her defend herself publicly. “People have all their opinions, and, at first, that was so hard for me because I was like, ‘That’s not true, that’s not true, that’s not true. What he’s saying isn’t true.’ But, at the end of the day, my friends who walked that with me know. My parents know, and God knows, and that is enough. It’s enough,” Pearce concluded.

Pearce adds that despite the fact that it was a difficult situation to be in, it also made her realize her own worth more. “I am in the happiest season of my life,” she shared. “If I ever saw him, if he ever watches this, thank you because you taught me more about myself. You taught me how strong I am. You put me through things that have made me better now. And I don’t wish him evil. I don’t wish anything on him. I’m so glad that I’m not in that anymore.”

As for the reasons she had to have an overnight change of mind, Pearce still admits that she realized that she cared more about herself and herself only. “I think I was really shown just how much I care about myself. I actually really have a lot of self-worth, and that showed me that,” she said.

Now that she’s moved on and working on several new projects, Pearce, while she once was embarrassed about the divorce, is now grateful that it happened because of the new perspective and self-love she gained.