Country singer Carly Pearce has opened up about the rapid unraveling of her marriage to fellow musician Michael Ray, revealing that she recognized the relationship was over on their wedding night in 2019. In a recent appearance on the “Person Who Believed In Me” podcast, Pearce, now 36, described a stark shift in her then-husband’s behavior that left her feeling she had made a serious error. “There’s a bit of Jekyll and Hyde … that I did not see until it was too late,” she said, adding that Ray “made it very clear that I made a very big mistake.”
The couple, who tied the knot after a whirlwind courtship, were married for just eight months before Pearce filed for divorce in June 2020. The divorce was finalized three months later in September 2020. Pearce explained that she chose to end the union despite external pressures, stating, “I blew up my life to get out of it. I didn’t stay because society tells you [that] you should. I didn’t stay because my faith says divorce is bad. I didn’t stay because it’s public. I was done.”
According to Pearce, the pair had not engaged in deep conversations prior to the wedding and did not truly know each other well. She had previously shared on the “Dumb Blonde” podcast in August 2025 that she initially slid into Ray’s DMs to invite him to a party. “Genuinely, I got married to go the distance,” she said. “I absolutely did. When I married him, it was for the right reasons.” Yet she quickly realized the reality fell short of her expectations.
“It wasn’t what I signed up for. It just wasn’t the marriage that I know I deserve,” Pearce shared. “I knew that very quickly. And I think in the first — we were only married for eight months. Plenty happened to where it was very clear to me this was not — this just wasn’t a marriage.”
The experience ultimately strengthened Pearce, who credited it with helping her create her album 29. She wrote six intense songs about the divorce that she chose not to release, noting that processing the emotions through songwriting was essential. “I need to write it out to process it,” she said. “I thought it was just my story, but I think what I’ve learned is, it was a lot of different people’s stories. This was not what I deserved.”
Ray, 38, has also spoken publicly about the marriage’s breakdown. During a 2023 episode of the “Bobby Cast” podcast, he reflected on their lack of premarital counseling and moments when he should have voiced concerns. “We didn’t do counseling, we didn’t do any of that beforehand, and I think that — there was moments, that I look back now and I’m like, ‘Why didn’t I speak up on that?’ That was one of the first times I realized that her and I are opposite,” Ray said.
He described feeling absent after the wedding day itself, citing events that left him resolved to leave. “I didn’t show up after our wedding day, because by that point in time, there was a lot of stuff that she didn’t show up for. And it was just kind of like — there was stuff that happened that day where I was like, ‘I’m done. I’m out,’” Ray recalled.
The split was handled privately and efficiently, with both parties having signed prenuptial agreements. Ray noted that they owned nothing jointly and have had no contact since. “I haven’t seen or spoken to her in three-and-a-half years. Divorce papers [were] sent to my manager’s office. I signed them. Got sent to her manager’s office, she signed them. That’s it,” he said.
Pearce has previously addressed the divorce in other interviews, including one where she admitted feeling as though she had failed. The public nature of their relationship added layers of scrutiny, yet both artists have moved forward with their careers and personal lives separately in the years since.
The couple’s story highlights the challenges of high-profile relationships in the country music industry, where quick romances can face intense public and personal pressures. Pearce’s decision to share her perspective years later underscores how the experience shaped her songwriting and sense of resilience.
Listeners and fans have connected with her candid reflections, as the themes of heartbreak and self-discovery resonate beyond her own circumstances. Ray’s comments similarly offer insight into the mutual realization that the partnership was not sustainable.
Both Pearce and Ray continue to release music and perform, with their brief marriage now a chapter in their respective biographies. The details shared across podcasts provide a fuller picture of events that unfolded rapidly from the 2019 wedding to the 2020 divorce finalization.