The plot thickens…
On the heels of her divorce from fellow country singer Morgan Evans last year, Kelsea Ballerini sat down with Alexandra Cooper on the very popular Call Her Daddy podcast to open up about the details she’s been pretty quiet about until recently.
She notably told Alex that they had a fight before the CMA’s one year (according to her new project, it was in 2019), and she wound up sleeping on the couch:
“There were separations, there was years of couples therapy. There was like, many a night of sleeping on the couch.
I don’t think it was the first night, but it was a night where I was like, this is not what I want.
I slept on the couch the night before the CMAs and I remember I went to rehearsal at the arena and texting him and being like, ‘I’ll just see you at the carpet.’”
When asked specifically why she felt she needed to do that, she said there was an overwhelming feeling of “disconnection” between them.
Kelsea also called him out for taking “half the house that he didn’t pay for,” which was apparently part of their prenup, that he could have that or alimony.
Morgan then issued a statement seemingly in response to the episode coming out soon, saying in part that he wished it wasn’t being put out so publicly in this setting and format:
“It’s really sad for me to see this person, who I spent so much of my life with, and loved with all my heart, saying things that aren’t reality that leave out what really happened.
She knows I’m not the type of guy to speak on those things publicly. If this is what she needs to heal, I hope it helps.
And of course, because all their dirty laundry has been aired out for the world to see, it’s pretty much just turned into one big shit show, and the classic “he said, she said” kind of breakup.
But today, a new report came out this afternoon from Page Six where “an insider” claims Kelsea cheated on Morgan with Drew Taggart, one half of The Chainsmokers duo, in August of 2019 at Lollapalooza.
Kelsea and Drew collaborated on their hit 2018 song “This Feeling,” and she allegedly told Morgan about the affair in 2021.
They added that this was part of the reason he felt “blindsided” by the divorce, though Kelsea claims in the podcast that he knew about their issues and they had an open conversation about the split.
Kelsea and Morgan were married for almost five years, and court documents also obtained by Page Six say that Kelsea cited “irreconcilable differences” as the cause of their divorce.
No comment has been issued yet by any of the three parties involved in this story, so it remains to be seen if any of the claims are even true.
It isn’t the first time this rumor has circulated, however, it’s the first time it has been reported on.
A number of folks (mostly Kelsea fans) on Twitter suspect this a move from Evans team to combat the Call Her Daddy interview:
Either way, it’s just another reminder that divorce can be messy and ugly.
Kelsea just dropped a new Rolling Up The Welcome Mat EP, as well, where she actually singlehandedly responds to Morgan’s aforementioned heartbreaking ballad, “Over For You,” in a series of songs about their crumbling marriage, in addition to addressing a multitude of other issues they had going on behind closed doors.
The full podcast episode is now available on Spotify, and you can check out the trailer here:
“This Feeling”
‘Rolling Up The Welcome Mat’
Kelsea Ballerini is spilling the tea, or singing it, I should say.
In her latest Valentine’s Day EP release of Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, Kelsea singlehandedly responds to ex-husband Morgan Evans heartbreaking ballad, “Over For You,” in a series of songs about their crumbling marriage.
Because the two are both in the industry, listeners have basically had a front-row seat to them spewing their emotions through lyric ingenuity. But this is Kelsea’s most outright response yet, and it’s highly likely that it emerged from hearing Morgan’s song, because she offers some rather direct counterarguments.
Morgan Evans’ “Over For You” introductory line asks, “How long have you been waiting to take our pictures down,” and it’s a downhill emotional spiral from there. He asks a lot of other personal questions of his now ex-wife, like when she started to feel broken and why she didn’t come to him sooner, and even if there was someone else all along.
The chorus cleverly begins with Morgan expressing “I would have searched the whole world over for you,” before wrapping with the parallel line, “How long has it been over for you?”
Kelsea’s response was far from contrite.
Instead, the “Peter Pan” singer seems much more at peace in her EP. Compared to Morgan’s song about the two, it seems that Kelsea is prioritizing healing and is no longer pondering the question, “why?”
But that doesn’t stop her from answering Morgan’s questions quite clearly in her own thread of songs.
In her opening song titled, “Mountain With A View,” Kelsea responds with some of her own views on the downfall of their matrimony. She paints an image of herself waking up in Big Sur, eating alone at a table made for two, and asking herself why she isn’t missing her better half.
The verse goes on to share that the two lovers don’t even keep up with one another or truly know where the other is at, before she summarizes the breakdown in the chorus:
“I’m wearin’ the ring still, but I think I’m lyin’
Sometimes you forget yours, I think we’re done tryin’
I realize you loved me much more at twenty-three
I think that this is when it’s over for me…”
It’s easy to spot the quippy one liner she summarizes her chorus with, making sure to let listeners and Morgan know this is her rebuttal – as if we didn’t already know.
Her concluding bridge takes the narrative a step farther from previous interviews where she kindly shared that “the glitter just wore off” in their relationship:
“I’m takin’ the ring off, I’m finally cryin’
Don’t try to find yours, no reason to fight it
You’ll say I’m crazy for bein’ the one to leave
Scream I’m just like my parents and givin’ up easy
But you never took that last flight to see me
Looks like our ending ain’t endin’ happily
I think that this is when it’s over for me…”
Other songs from the EP like “Penthouse” also respond to Morgan lines.
For example, he says, “It’s killin’ me to know this house ain’t a home,” while Kelsea implies, they were only “playing home in a penthouse.”
At this rate this divorce is more like a soap opera, but in song form.
We are just waiting for the next episode to drop while also wondering if the network will pick it up for a new season, but I gotta say, the suspense had me tuning in for everything Kelsea had to say in her new Morgan-themed EP while trying to decipher the chaos.
