Carly Pearce, who will carry out on the CMT Music Awards on Sunday, was married to fellow nation singer Michael Ray for lower than a yr. The 2 bought engaged in December 2018 and married in October 2019. The wedding was short-lived, nevertheless, and Pearce filed for divorce in June 2020. Pearce, 32, is now courting former MLB participant Riley King.
Pearce and Ray, 34, confirmed they have been courting in July 2018. Weeks later, Pearce admitted style of nation that she had a crush on him for “a extremely very long time” and began commenting on all of his Instagram Story posts to get his consideration. “I did what all the ladies do in 2018, I slipped into DMs,” she mentioned on the time. Ray initially admitted that he did not perceive his intentions, however a lightweight clearly went on in his head. He proposed to her on December 19, 2018, whereas on a visit to Mexico with Pearce’s household.
The previous couple tied the knot in October 2019, in entrance of round 100 household and associates at a Nashville-area farm. The marriage was officiated by Grand Ole Opry announcer Invoice Cody. “Understanding past a shadow of a doubt that I did not accept something lower than actually the individual I believe was proper for me is one thing I am grateful for,” Pearce mentioned. PEOPLE.
After eight months of marriage, Pearce filed for divorce. The couple had no kids. They made their final public look as a pair on June 6, 2020, once they carried out on the Grand Ole Opry with out an viewers. “It was a troublesome resolution. It wasn’t one thing she needed to must do,” a supply near Pearce mentioned. PEOPLE in June 2020. “It wasn’t a quarantine realization – it was a final resort.”
Because the divorce, Pearce has been open about how the break up affected how she felt about herself. “It was terrible. I imply, I am being utterly sincere with you, it was so embarrassing. It was so shameful,” she mentioned. We Weekly in February 2021. “I felt like I failed. I felt like…I’d by no means discover love once more as a result of I bought divorced so younger and (I used to be) simply embarrassed .”
The 2 “realized in a short time that we weren’t meant to be collectively,” Pearce mentioned. PEOPLE in November 2020. “It wasn’t a flippant resolution,” she added. “It is one thing that I actually took the time to verify I used to be doing the precise factor about. It was very clear that this wasn’t the wedding I needed.”
In February, Pearce mentioned clean radio she was “grateful” for the divorce, which continued to encourage her later work. “I wish to write music that may generally be stunning,” the “What He Did not Do” singer mentioned. “Clearly writing a couple of divorce, I do not assume we have actually seen that in a very long time when it comes to actually going there. And so there’s similar to a degree of inspiration the place you do not have to attempt to do one thing, I assume, embellish one thing.”
“So for me, I simply felt tremendous impressed to put in writing what was taking place as a result of it was type of taking place in actual time. So what I meant by that was I want I may have one thing so blatant in my life each time I am writing a document simply to make it the factor,” Pearce continued. “As a result of there was no scarcity of tune concepts and writing throughout this course of, as a result of I knew precisely what I used to be going by way of if it made sense. And I felt prefer it there was rather a lot to say.”
Pearce earned nominations for this yr’s CMT Music Awards – Video of the 12 months for “What He Did not Do” and CMT Efficiency of the 12 months for performing “One Manner Ticket” with LeAnn Rimes and Ashley McBryde for the Crossroads CMT: LeAnn Rimes and her associates particular. Earlier this yr, she received the Grammy for Greatest Nation Duo/Group Efficiency for “By no means Wished to Be That Woman” with McBryde.