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Carly Pearce recently made a series of interviews where she talked about her marriage to Michael Ray and the reasons she knew it was over. The Grammy-winning country singer had an honest conversation with Bunnie XO on her Dumb Blonde podcast, where she opened up on the short-lived marriage and the journey to accepting and living through the truth.

Pearce knew it would be wrong to marry Michael Ray when they met, as love was missing in their relationship. “I thought he was so cute,” Pearce said while sharing details of the relationship. “I’d heard he’s the nicest guy in the world. I invited him to my No. 1 party for Every Little Thing,” she recalled. “Looking back on it, it was a hot and heavy lust. It wasn’t love. It was just passionate.”

Pearce also denied the claims that she married Ray out of fun. “I got married to go the distance. When I married him, it was for the right reasons,” she stated. She continued the conversation by adding that she and her ex-husband did not talk about the important issues they should have discussed before getting married. “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,” Pearce said.

“I Knew the Night I Got Married That I Shouldn’t Have”

Pearce, in an interview on Bunnie XO’s podcast, Dumb Blonde, said it was obvious right from the day she married Michael Ray that it was not supposed to be. “I knew the night I got married that I shouldn’t have,” Pearce said. She mentioned that COVID-19 was the best thing that had ever happened to her. “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,” she added.

Divorce, Rumors, and Carly Pearce’s Worth

The divorce between Pearce and Ray was made official in 2020, eight months after their marriage. She shared that she knew it was not what she signed up for, and it showed how she was not what she deserved. “It wasn’t what I signed up for,” she said. “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,” she said.

Pearce also discussed her short-lived marriage with Michael Ray and the rumors that surrounded her. Bunnie and Pearce spoke briefly about the speculation that Ray cheated on Pearce during their relationship. The country singer said: “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.”

She has since moved on from her failed marriage and found a new way of living. She mentioned that her divorce helped her learn that she is worth it. “I am in the happiest season of my life,” she said. “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 admitted that one of the most important things her ex-husband helped her with was to see how much she really cared about herself. “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,” Pearce said.