.

Carly Pearce has finally revealed what she “already knew” when she tied the knot with her ex-husband, Michael Ray, and the country singer said that it was the night she said, “I do,” that she knew the marriage was not going to work.

In an interview with Bunnie XO on Dumb Blonde, a podcast, Pearce explained that the “official” beginning of her relationship with Ray was not the result of her actually “falling in love” with him, and the split that took place just eight months later was “the best thing” that could have happened to her.

Pearce, who is known for smash hits Every Little Thing and Should’ve Known Better, first met Michael Ray several years ago while both of them were trying to make it in the country music industry, which she said is how they began dating and became close friends and “best buds.”

“I just remember being like, ‘This is it, I know he’s the one,’ because I was so happy. I had never been in a situation before where I was in love, and this is what I thought it was supposed to feel like,” she said. “He made me feel like I was on top of the world.”

Despite a whirlwind romance, when asked about her decision to marry Ray in 2019, Pearce confessed that she knew from the very beginning that their relationship was a mistake because it was only founded on lust and desire rather than love.

“The moment we started dating, I just knew. I mean, it was a great start to a relationship in the fact that we had instant attraction, I thought he was so cute,” Pearce said while remembering when she and Ray first started to date. “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.”

“I got married to go the distance. When I married him, it was for the right reasons,” she continued. “But in retrospect, I think we both messed up and didn’t really have those foundational conversations.”

Pearce went on to explain that the love story she and Ray thought they had was not what really occurred in the beginning. “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.

However, Pearce emphasized that it was very much her decision to marry Ray, not something she took lightly.

“I definitely got married to go the distance and to not give up on a relationship. I went in ready to win,” she said. “Looking back on it, we didn’t have those really raw conversations that were in depth and in the nitty-gritty about what we both wanted, about real issues, past relationships, past marriage, everything, for that foundation to last.”

Pearce also confessed that the actual day of the wedding was the very moment she knew she had made a grave mistake by rushing into marriage with the country singer.

“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. It took a toll on me,” she said. “I was embarrassed when it happened. I had shame around that, and I was heartbroken.”

Marriage, Divorce, and Rumors

Pearce and Ray first tied the knot in the summer of 2019 and were only married for eight months before the country singer filed for divorce in 2020.

Although Pearce has never publicly stated the specific reason that led to the divorce, she did admit that their marriage was not what she had originally planned.