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Carly Pearce has now addressed one of the most heartbreaking periods of her life. The Grammy-winning singer has admitted that she knew the night she married country singer Michael Ray that it was a mistake and a “cheat.”

Pearce recently revealed that the wedding had not turned out as planned and “I knew the night I got married that I shouldn’t have.”

Pearce got married in 2019 after a whirlwind romance but filed for divorce only eight months later. At the time, she thought she was making the right decision, “I thought he was so cute, had 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,” she told Bunnie XO.

The Kentucky-native, known for her hits songs, such as Every Little Thing and Should’ve Known Better, continued to Bunnie XO that while she did know that the wedding was a mistake from the beginning, she was confident that she had made the right decision by marrying Ray at the time and “When I married him, I did it to go the distance.”

Pearce said that she would do things differently now, but noted that she got married for the right reasons. However, in the end, it wasn’t a happy marriage and failed to deliver what she wanted. The two artists didn’t know each other that well. “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 explained.

The singer further revealed that there were not many doubts the night of the wedding. “I knew the night I got married that I shouldn’t have,” said Pearce, “I was on a post-CMA red carpet and was talking to my parents, and it was the first time I felt like I just told them about this, and it just wasn’t what I thought it was or how I wanted to live my life. We were youn,g and we got married young.”

Pearce may have felt devastated after the failed marriage, but the subsequent pandemic, according to the artist, was the best thing that ever happened to he,r as it had allowed her to work through the pain in private. “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 told Bunnie XO.

Pearce filed for divorce from Michael Ray in 2020

Pearce filed for divorce from Ray eight months after tying the knot in 2019. As of today, the two have not discussed any specific issues that drove them apart, Pearce said that the marriage “wasn’t what I signed up for.”

“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,” the ‘Slow Dancing in a Honky Tonk’ singer further noted.

Pearce also explained that she had never talked about what went on between her and Michael. Bunnie XO briefly brought up the rumors that Michael may have cheated during their marriage, to which Pearce said that it was difficult to have to constantly be on the defensive in the beginning. “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 further stated.

Pearce maintains that she got married at the wrong time, and a younger version of herself wouldn’t have been as strong-minded to make such decisions. “I feel like a younger me could have gotten lost in this, maybe could’ve been talked into this. I know that I would not have made the decisions and done the things I did last year without my whole entire world crashing down on me. So I would do things differently,” she further stated.

Pearce opens up about the marriage

Pearce wrote in an Instagram post after her split that she went into the marriage “wide-eyed and excited.” She continued to say that “without the details, I quickly discovered the timing wasn’t right and the goals for our future didn’t align.”

Carly was once married to Texas-native Charlie Worsham. The two got married in 2016 and announced their divorce the following year.