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Carly Pearce recently got real about the short-lived marriage to country singer Michael Ray. She opened up about her life-changing experience and revealed that she knew the very night she married her ex-husband that it was the wrong decision to make.

Speaking with Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast, the Grammy-winning artist revealed that her marriage to Ray was more based on lust than on love, and that is why they called it off eight months later.

The Kentucky-native singer, known for the country hits Every Little Thing and Should’ve Known Better, shared that when she married the love of her life in 2019, it was a spontaneous decision she thought was right at the time. “I thought he was so cute,” Pearce added. “I’d 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.”

Pearce also said that she felt she did not enter the marriage in the wrong way. “I got married to go the distance. When I married him, it was for the right reasons,” Pearce emphasized. But upon reflection, the singer admitted that she and her ex did not have any real-life conversations or did not know each other 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 shared.

Pearce further revealed that she got a feeling of regret the moment she tied the knot with Michael Ray. “I knew the night I got married that I shouldn’t have,” she confessed, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic, although heartbreaking, was a silver lining for her because it gave her some privacy. The privacy allowed Pearce to deal with the collapse of the relationship away from the public. “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.”

Pearce officially announced their divorce in 2020, after eight months of marriage. She, however, did not reveal the reason for the breakdown of the relationship. She also hinted that there were problems that both she and Ray did not anticipate. “It wasn’t what I signed up for,” she noted. “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.”

Pearce and Bunnie briefly touched on some rumors about Ray cheating on Pearce during their time together. While Pearce did not deny or confirm the allegations, she did admit that it was difficult and embarrassing for her to see the rumors and have to clear herself of the cheating claims in public. “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.”

Pearce shared that she emerged from that trying experience more powerful, stronger, and full of self-worth. She also noted that that experience brought about self-discovery for her. “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 the divorce made her self-aware. She was brought to the realization that she values herself too much to have wasted her time on a man who was not worthy. “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,” she admitted.

Carly Pearce is now focused on being grateful for the experiences and not crying over what happened between her and Ray. Although she knows how heartbreaking and embarrassing it was for her at the time of the marriage, she is rephrasing it by thinking of it as a fundamental moment in her life.