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Country singer Carly Pearce recently shared some things that she never told anyone before about her failed marriage with fellow country singer Michael Ray. During an interview for Bunnie XO’s podcast Dumb Blonde, Pearce opened up to Bunnie about her split from Ray and revealed that she “knew the night I got married that I shouldn’t have.”

In her interview, the Grammy Award-winning singer stated that her relationship with Michael Ray started as a hot and heavy fling. Unfortunately, her relationship with the 34-year-old didn’t last long and turned into “passionate,” as she called it, instead of a real love. The two tied the knot in December 2019 and called it quits only eight months later.

Pearce released her latest song, “Hide the Wine,” in June 2021, after officially filing for divorce in 2020. She also opened up about how difficult it was to get through the split with Ray while being in the spotlight. “I thought he was so cute,” Pearce said while remembering how she met Ray for the first time. “I’d 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 a hot and heavy lust. It wasn’t love. It was just passionate.”

Carly Pearce on Her Failed Marriage and Heartbreak

Pearce also revealed that despite the heartbreak she went through, she married Michael Ray with the right intentions in mind. “I got married to go the distance. When I married him, it was for the right reasons,” Pearce said in the same interview with Bunnie. However, things got a bit different, and she stated that she and her ex-husband didn’t give their relationship a real chance.

“We didn’t have real conversations, and we didn’t really know about each other,” Carly Pearce said. “We were kind of living this life that wasn’t really reality.”

On the other hand, Pearce went on to reveal that she realized it was a big mistake right away and regrets tying the knot with her now ex-husband. “I knew the night I got married that I shouldn’t have,” she shared. “The pandemic was the best thing that happened to me 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.”

Pearce admitted that she was ashamed when she announced the split with Michael Ray. “I was embarrassed when it happened … and I had shame around that and was heartbroken.”

Pearce Gave Up Details About the Divorce with Ray

Pearce also revealed that she filed for divorce from her ex-husband in March 2020 after a short-lived marriage. During her chat with Bunnie, Pearce opened up about what led her to split from Michael Ray and share how she realized he was not the man she wanted to spend her life with. “It wasn’t what I signed up for,” Pearce said. “It just wasn’t the marriage that I knew I deserved.”

At the same time, the hitmaker also confessed that she knew that the marriage was not going to work in the first place. “I knew that very quickly. Plenty happened to where it was very clear to me this was not, this just wasn’t a marriage,” Pearce stated.

In addition, the Kentucky native briefly touched on the rumors that Michael Ray was cheating on her during their relationship, but Pearce refused to comment on that. “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,” she said. “But, at the end of the day, my friends who walked that with me, they know. My parents know, and God knows, and that is enough. It’s enough.”

Pearce Says She Learned a Lot about Herself

Pearce finished off the interview by saying that she is currently the happiest she has ever been. She credited her ex-husband for making her realize her worth. “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,” Pearce concluded.

The singer later added, “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.”