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Country singer Carly Pearce recently admitted that she knew the moment she said her vows that her marriage was bound to fail. Speaking on Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast, the Grammy winner revealed that her eight-month relationship with country singer Michael Ray was not real but based on lust.

Pearce married Michael Ray in 2019 after dating for a few months. She recently revealed in an interview that she knew it was the wrong decision even though she was 100% sure she was doing the right thing. “I thought he was so cute,” she said while describing the courtship period with her ex. “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 added that she never thought marriage was the answer. “I got married to go the distance. When I married him, it was for the right reasons,” she stated. “In retrospect, Michael failed. We didn’t really know how to get through life together. We didn’t have real conversations and didn’t really know about each other.” She added that both were living “a life that wasn’t really reality.”

Sharing how her instinct on her wedding day was a red flag, Pearce explained, “I knew the night I got married that I shouldn’t have.” She also shared how the COVID-19 pandemic – which forced the couple to stay home – was a blessing in disguise that gave her the time and privacy she needed to grieve the end of her marriage. “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.”

Here’s Why Pearce Decided to Divorce Michael Ray

Pearce and Michael Ray filed for divorce in 2020 after only eight months of marriage. She has not given a detailed account of why she felt the need to split with the father of her child, but has recently revealed that it was not what she expected.

In her chat with Bunnie XO on the Dumb Blonde podcast, Pearce said, “It wasn’t what I signed up for.” She added, “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.”

Rumors of infidelity were mentioned in the conversation. Bunnie asked her if it was the case. While not giving a direct answer to the question, Pearce admitted that having to clear her name when the whole world was judging them was difficult to deal with. “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 recently shared that she has never been happier and more confident, adding that the failed marriage gave her a sense of self-worth. “I am in the happiest season of my life,” Pearce told Bunnie. “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.”

Carly Pearce Confronted Her Self-Worth During Breakup

Pearce admits that before her failed marriage and subsequent divorce, she was not fully aware of how much self-worth she had. “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 said.

Pearce is now enjoying life with husband Michael Jackson and has learned to be grateful for what she has. “I used to have shame and embarrassment about it. But, gosh, I would rather go through that than go through some of the things I was thinking about,” she said.