Call Her Daddy - Kelsea Ballerini: Divorced at 29

Episode Date: February 22, 2023

Kelsea Ballerini joins Call Her Daddy, and for the first time ever, shares the full account of her relationship and divorce from country singer Morgan Evans. Kelsea and Morgan met when she was only 22 years old and the pair got engaged nine months later. Kelsea opens up about the struggles in their marriage and the moment she realized divorce was the only option.

what is up daddy gang it is your founding father alex cooper with call her daddy kelsey ballerini welcome to call her daddy hello alex cooper thank you kelsey brought me a gift so this was not planned so i have no idea what i'm supposed i'm gonna open this it's a little happy I I think I think I'm your first like country artist yes yes so I had to bring a little yeehaw energy to just set the tone correctly it feels like Christmas I love Christmas I do too I do too I love I love a good gift I love this wrapping paper. I didn't wrap it. I got to be honest with you. It's okay. But shut the fuck up. Thank you so, so much. I'm obsessed. You're so welcome. congratulations on your new ep thank you rolling up the welcome mat i was listening to it in the

car this morning and i listened to every single song and it's great thanks it's great. Thanks. It's also obvious what it's about, your divorce. Yeah. So let's get into it. Let's get into it. You met your ex-husband, Morgan Evans, when you were 22 years old. And he's also a country singer. Yeah. How did the two of you meet?

I was hosting an award show and he was my co-host. And I was like newly out of a relationship and I was in this phase where I was like on my third single but like like I just felt like the world was like opening up for the first time for me and like things were things were working and I was like I just like I believed in everything yeah you. You know what I mean? Like everything good was happening at once. And I think I was just like so starry eyed to my life. And then I met this person who like was is like so charming and sweet and and just it like aligned with this this goodness that was happening in my world. And it just all kind of clicked in like this kind of fairy tale moment. I also feel like that age, even if like we all have our ups and downs at 21, 22, but it is a pretty ideal age where you like feel like you're an adult. Yeah. You're kind

of not, but like you feel like it. You're feeling like it. I thought that I had my entire life figured out. Like I thought that I knew exactly what love was and what I contributed to a relationship and what I needed out of a relationship. Yeah. And I didn't. What was your first impression of him? Like what were you attracted to about him? He just comes from like such a loving family

that believes so much in like unity and family. And I come from a really, really broken family. And I was really attracted to that. Like I was really attracted to the security that that idea had and that he innately had in him. Yeah. We definitely came in with different ideas of a relationship, you know. What were those first few weeks and months of dating like?

It was just a whirlwind. I like I'm such a jump right in person um which I part of me was like I don't want to do that again and part of me is like here I am um but I I don't know how to shield that because I I like that about myself I'm like I would rather feel things without a filter and then fall on my ass later and and feel the opposite of that feeling fully then not let myself feel a feeling like that's the point of life you know um and so I I think that like my my life was changing so much and I was like all of a sudden busy all the time and traveling the world for the first time like I'm from Knoxville and then I was like going to Australia you know I was

like this is amazing like look at the world yes and um and he felt steady really really steady through all the chaos of my life changing when you look back now at those beginning first few even like weeks month or two of dating is there anything now you can be like oh I think that's a red flag but you were too young at the time to recognize I at 22 was much quieter I didn't have an opinion on much I um I'm a people pleaser to my core and I think that that was the thing that was in the driver's seat I was a mirror back to whoever was in front of me um and I was really good at being whoever people needed me to be and then I grew up you got engaged after nine months of knowing each other yeah nine months

of knowing each other were you surprised when he proposed no no I mean it was like it was balls to the wall it was all in had you guys talked about getting engaged yeah and it's so funny because I swore I would never get married it was just not my thing and I think it's because I watch my parents really have a time with it um they had a nasty divorce. They still can't really be in the same room. And so I think being an only child, watching that, walking through that at 12, 13, like those impressionable ages, I was just like, I'm not doing it.

When you guys got engaged, what was your friends and family reaction? They were happy. I mean, I think there was definitely like, this is pretty fast um undertone to everything but like you know he's a good person and he was really good to me especially then yeah so I think they wanted to see me happy I also think that they were watching my life start to change and they wanted someone with me that was more steady so I didn't have a go off

the rails yeah that makes sense I was wondering if there were any of those like friends that sometimes it creates a riff in the friendship but they're like Kelsey like are you sure like this is really soon like did you not have anyone in your life that was questioning you people questioned him more than they questioned me like my friend Megan I'll never forget this, the first time she met him, she pulled him aside and she said, you have a lot more to gain from this than she does. Why do you think that is? I think we were just in different places.

He's nine years older than me, and he was kind of restarting his career in the States, and I was digging my heels in. It was just we were in different places with our with our jobs and with where we were at with them did you feel that way that he had more to gain I never felt like that until afterwards yeah did you live together before you got engaged we did how soon did you move in together eight months wow you had eight months it sounds insane for me to say it all out now sometimes you can be so in it and clouded in your judgment because like the immediate in front of you feel so good and make so much sense in your head not to say it's a full

bad decision it's just like you don't have the wherewithal to be like let me think about this not from a place of being young and in love and infatuated like it's really fucking hard but eight months to move in did you move in with him or did he move in with you or did you guys get like a mutual place he moved in with me oh that's interesting so he's nine years older you have a place and he moves in with you how did that conversation go um it was just kind of the undertone of the whole relationship you know now do you see that as a red flag do you think if in that specific instance say like moving in like if you had pushed back do you think the relationship would have

progressed in the way that it did maybe not as swiftly i think that definitely accelerated it um but like i said like i was just i was like, how can I be of service? I'm a people pleaser. What what do we need to do to make this happen? You know, did anyone ever ask you guys like, what's the rush? Like, why do you have to get married so soon? Like date? Have fun.

I'm sure people did. Yeah, I'm sure people did. And I just simply did not care to listen. OK, take me to your wedding day. What do you remember about that day? Oh, my God. I haven't thought about that in a minute. I just wanted everyone to have a nice time.

I didn't want to have a wedding. Why? Because I didn't, I think at the end of the day I really want to get married um I did in that moment but fundamentally I think from the trauma that I had as a kid I didn't and then I think I told myself that I did and I take the full responsibility of that narrative did you ever share with him that you didn't think fundamentally you believed in marriage for yourself I think these bigger thoughts started really showing up as I grew up and that was in the marriage yeah you know because I was like of course I mean I love you of course I want to marry you of course I want to have kids with you and then we were married and

then it was like time for kids and then I was like oh no no no no how you enter into a relationship and how you show up to it and like that that's going to be the through line yeah and so I started overcompensating really really early on and that happened till the very end can you explain what you mean by that overcompensating like I was the one who was like when am I going to see you how is that going to happen here's's the flight. Let me buy that flight for you. Here's the hotel. Sure. I'll leave my mom for Christmas and buy our flights to go see your family in Australia. Okay, cool. Um, we have an anniversary coming up. Should we book a trip? Okay. I'll do that too. Um, we're home for a week. I'll book the cleaners. I got

that too. Um, like I just did it all and it's because I started it that way I didn't I didn't ask him to meet me anywhere I just did it when you're saying you were basically financially funding the relationship when did you start to get like resentful um when I just simply didn't see him I got to a place where I was like if I wasn't if I wasn't killing myself to figure out how this overlaps and how this works as I'm like you know busy just we wouldn't exist we and why weren't you seeing him where is he i mean he was touring he was doing doing it all i just i think if you want to you will yeah so how was your first year of marriage because you were married for five years almost five almost five okay so how was the first year of marriage it was great okay it was great we like we were still so young in our relationship

like our relationship was still so young right let alone the marriage you know so like we were still kind of in like the rainbows and butterflies and it was fun and sweet and romantic and there was effort and um i know i always say to myself and to my girlfriends of like you have to get to the year mark and then you kind of start to recognize if you'd want to be with that person yeah you got married in the honeymoon stage for sure when did you realize the two of you were not on the same page about what marriage looked like longer than I give myself credit for um a long time a long time and there were there was separations there was years of couples therapy there was like many nights of sleeping on the couch like this was just a relationship that took work for a long time

do you remember like the first night that you slept on the couch I remember I don't think it was the first night but I remember it was a night where I was like this is not what I want but I slept on the couch the night before the CMAs and um I remember I went to rehearsal at the arena and texting him and him being like I'll just see you at the carpet like okay can you give me a little bit more of an why did you sleep on the couch there was just such a sense of disconnection we hadn't seen each other there was a lack of effort to see each other I was getting resentful because anytime we did see each other, I felt like I was carrying that load. And I was tired. I was just tired of showing up in that way all the time and not feeling like I was seen or matched. And then I was also tired from traveling all the time and like giving so

much of myself because that's what I want to do to honor my career, too. And I think I just felt really depleted and not understood. What those nights look like like fight wise though like are you we didn't fight you didn't fight yeah we didn't fight no so it would be just silence you're walking out you're sleeping on the couch you wake up in the next morning and it's like yeah that's how it goes yeah and when you walk out onto the like to go to sleep on the couch he doesn't come to try to get you he stays in the room it's just silence yeah but how would you feel when you're on the couch like going to bed like what were do you remember what you were mentally going through i definitely learned how to compartmentalize which is some undoing that we're working on now yeah because i was like i have to work tomorrow

i have to work tomorrow and i have to show up with him so people don't ask questions and then you know 2021 I host the CMT awards he just wasn't there he didn't show up I I was like you cannot come you cannot come it was so bad why did you not want him to go because because I had to work and I had to show up and I knew that if he was there we were like in and out of separation and and just not good and I was like it's just like I don't want to fake it I don't want to fake it did people in your life know that this was happening yeah everyone in my life knew this was happening everyone in his life knew this was happening How soon into the marriage did you guys get into couples therapy? Because I know you said you've been doing it for years. Year two.

And what was like the issue you kept reaching a standstill on to make you be like, we need to go to couples therapy? Just like feeling really lopsided. Just feeling like this relationship would not be alive if I if I didn't do everything and I just like you getting on the plane that I found and booked for you is not enough when you because I appreciate how you said earlier like everyone is going to have their own side and I like really respect that everyone experiences it their own way but from your recollection of how you felt in those moments what would be his reasoning when you would come at him to be like I'm literally doing

fucking everything like give me something like what would he say um I mean he was busy too you know and I I think I was maybe a little too nice about it um but like he needed to do what he needed to do too and and also by the way like I don't pin the whole downfall on him at all I was not perfect he was not perfect it was not perfect um and so there were definitely moments that I look back on where I'm like oh I should have done that different or I could have showed up here I could have taken the flight this time whatever it is um and I in in the unraveling that's definitely something that I ended up sharing with him um just saying like I need to own the last

few years of like I think I checked out a long time ago and I need to like I need to let you know that your pictures from your wedding were in people magazine yeah how did the pressure of having a public relationship also impact how long you stayed I I think I'd be lying to say it didn't I think there was a lot I think there were two levels of fear that I had to get past one was that I was my parents like having that fear of like you're doing what they did how how has this happened anything that how our parents fucked us up we're like I'm gonna do it the complete opposite I'm not gonna let this happen to me can you talk about your feelings towards having that as like a big thing in your head of like, I cannot fail because I don't want to be my parents.

Like, how did that mentally and emotionally affect you? I think I got married because of my parents. I think I got divorced because of me and i i like i think me choosing to get out of that marriage was me kind of rewriting what divorce looks like and what it means i was listening this morning and i remember hearing the line of like I may be not getting this exactly but it's like we would text and in place of basically like sex when did like you lose the spark in your relationship sex in in in my life and in my

journey has been something that's taken a lot of um work um i think i grew up really really really really religious and um i went to like a church of christ college and like if you have sex before marriage you're going to hell that was like in my body like not just my mind but like my body and um i had been with one other person before i got married, and it was a really negative sexual experience. And it was in a relationship, but it just was not healthy at all. And so the way that I define sex was very one-sided, very for the man, very not a sense of connection at all. And then it was also littered with this with this like you're going to hell and so then I got married and um like had this shame around it going into it um that made it really difficult

for us to connect in that way from the very beginning and I don't even think I understood what a good sexual relationship was so I don't think I had anything to compare it to it just was yeah when we saw each other not very often yeah that would be something that I knew that he wanted and needed and I wanted to be a good wife yeah were you lonely yeah yeah for sure. But I will say like, I learned the value in female friendship. Like, oh my God, so much. Like I'm an only child and I always wanted sisters so badly and I'm going to cry, not this, but like, that is such a gift that came out of it was like, I, I have like such a good group of girlfriends that would like, they've just shown up when it's not convenient and um I have a story yeah because this to me is like this to me is

just in a nutshell the reason it ended and the reason that I am where I am and the reason that I'm fucking happy um is there was a time that I was out here I think it was 2019 and I get really really um I get sad in LA I don't know what it is and I didn't have a good group of friends out here yet I do now in therapy I was learning like you can't expect your partner to read your mind if you need something ask, ask for it. Like that's going to lead to a healthier communication. And so I remember I called him and I was like sobbing and I was just like, I'm in a bad place. I need you. Like, can you please get on a flight? Sent him the flight. And he didn't come. And I remember feeling like really embarrassed cause I was vulnerable and I asked and I hate asking and all these things.

And it was just a moment that I shared with my friends and whatever. And then last year I was on tour going through the divorce publicly going on stage every night. And, um, my best friend Kelly surprised me at my LA show And it was such, it was so special. Like that whole show was so special. And then the next day I had a day off and we were driving in Malibu and she looked at me and she was like, Hey, do you know why I'm here? And I was like, cause you wanted to see the Greek show. She's like, no, because in 2019 you had to ask for someone to come out here that should have known he should have known

and you asked and he didn't show up and i'm here to show you that it's not that fucking hard who brought up the idea of divorce first me how did you begin that conversation take us to that moment the moment I think it was over over was I was realizing that I wasn't ready for kids and that's a fundamental difference and I don't and I still don't I don't know if I want kids at all or not um but that was something that we had talked about early on and that was something that I was changing on you know because he was ready he was like I don't want to be an old dad is what he kept saying. And I was like, I'm not I just like I'm not there yet. And I can't I can't do that to like save this and give you something that I'm not ready for. Like, I just can't do

that to myself. And I remember I went to get everything checked to see if I could freeze my eggs and I didn't tell him. and I took him out to dinner and I was like for my 30th birthday I want to freeze my eggs and it was not a good day it was not a good day and I think that was when I was like there's a fundamental difference here that has happened and that has shifted and it's no longer like I don't see this person I miss this person I'm alone I'm lonely it's like he wants something out of life that I'm I don't think I'm I don't I'm not there and whether I'll get there or not I don't think it's with this person if it is um and I think internally in hindsight that's where I went like I think maybe we need to rethink the skills

first of all I really respect you having that moment within yourself to be like because of now kind of getting to know you you're like I have people pleasing tendencies I sometimes have a hard time with saying no and so I'm just gonna go with the flow and I'm gonna go with it there's a lot of people that have children to save a marriage yeah and that is I mean children are beautiful things but like not to save a marriage yeah and so the fact that you had that internal strength to be like I know this is never going to be something that I can do just to save this it sounds like there was a very bad reaction yeah do you think had he been like loving and sweet about it would you be in this situation I think at the end of the day even the fact that

I was having the conversation of freezing my eggs that was telling me that we were on different pages with it yeah you know yeah it was like ready ready and I was wanting to freeze my eggs a year and a half from then right so when did you have like the conversation that you wanted a divorce in August um but we had kind of been separated and I had asked for separation. And so we were like switching off in the house and I was like living with my mom if I wasn't on the road. Um, and then I went on this girl's trip to Napa with like all my girlfriends and I just felt joy, like pure joy. And I, and I, I wasn't sharing it with them like we weren't talking you know and uh I was just like yeah this I like this version of myself so much more so did you end up having like a

conversation with him or did you just when did that happen um a couple weeks later when I saw him in person um and it was like a really beautiful conversation if I'm honest with you you know I was just really honest I just said like I I've I've loved I've loved what this has brought in my life and I respect you and I respect me and because of that I can no longer be in this marriage and and I really want to do this together. And I really want to, like, honor the good that we've experienced by doing this the right way. And, like, it was beautiful. We cried.

We hugged. It was sweet. And then something changed. And I don't – I haven't talked to him since. Oh, wow. You never spoke through, like like the lawyers and everything. That was it. That was the last day you spoke. Wow. Yeah. He like after that conversation, obviously you lawyer up and you tell you tell your team and you get your people. Yeah. And

yeah. And everything kind of just shifted. How does that make you feel that you haven't spoken I mean I'm at peace with it now at first I was just like I just felt like you know we had had a conversation of like let's let's do this right like this doesn't have to be yep this doesn't have to be nasty this doesn't have to be what I've experienced divorce to look like it got nasty yeah it did he released a song about your divorce and this was before it was finalized this was weeks after we decided and you had no idea the song was coming out no some of the lyrics and these are like not even some of the i'm not gonna say the worst but like it was how long have you been waiting to take our pictures down why am I just finding out I was reading the lyrics and I

was like oh shit like from my interpretation I was like he is like blaming you of like you have like known all along that you weren't in this and like I'm blindsided and like why why are you just like randomly last minute telling me like this this is pretty fucked up when you heard the song and when you hear the lyrics what does it make you feel oh so angry so angry that's like that I felt pretty I had a pretty good grasp on like my grieving journey until that song came out and I was livid I think that maybe there's a world where he was blindsided I did not blindside him I think two things can be true and I I think like if he truly was blindsided then where was he and that's the point yeah because you write

were you blindsided or were you just blind the truth is hard to hear but it wasn't hard to find can you explain your like mentality when you were writing these lyrics and like where were you at trying to explain this I mean I think I was just kind of like putting examples in there like we were in therapy for years like remember that time that I slept on the couch before the CMA awards and then we like walked the carpet like with bags under our eyes because we had been fighting like but not really fighting because like you know I was just like, again, if that is your narrative, if that's true to you, like, where were you? How does it feel, though, to like in that moment now be going like back and forth in songs with your ex-husband? I feel, if I'm being honest, like I felt like it was really opportunistic for him to put that out when he did, when we were still going through the legalities of getting divorced.

And I felt really used in that moment. And again, his healing journey is his healing journey. I respect that. But publicly exploiting it feels a little nasty to me before it's final. Now we're like months past it. You know, we're like months past it you know we're moving on um and and i've taken the time to like actually sit in my feelings and like go through that grieving process and and take ownership of what i what i brought to the table too you know and um and that's why like this ep has been like i'm nervous to put it out for sure um but i

wish i would have had it in august i wish i wish in august when i was like i'm blowing up my life i'm doing it that someone would have had those six songs that i could have listened to yeah to like go through the intricacies of the emotions of everything that you think your life is going to look like it's not when you were saying it got nasty it obviously feels like it's not just because he wrote a song no no can you share yeah I mean I want to like protect him weirdly in this. But like one thing that was, he was so diehard about in the beginning was like, I don't ever want people to think that I'm like using you or riding any coattails or like trying to get opportunities through you or any of that.

And I never felt like he did. I never felt like he did. Like to my core, even now I'm like like I believe I have to believe that this man like was purely just in love with me not artist me like me me you know and and then we got divorced and who you marry is not who you divorce and um like you know as he's putting out a song about being blindsided he's taking half the house that he didn't pay for so you didn't it was kind of like that or alimony what the fuck what the fuck i remember being on tour and um i had just gone home i had like two shows and then one night off and i flew home to pack up my shit in the house because we were listing it and flew back to Denver and got on a call with my manager and my lawyer and they're like um

you know like he wants half the house that's how they're reading the prenup or there's there's messy alimony language and I and I just remember being on the phone being like can you articulate to me that I have like a choice right now to either give up half of a house that I bought that I bought and he contributed but not not equal and or say legally in this marriage and have like public alimony hearings indefinitely and they're like that's correct and i was like give him the house i want out i want out give me out how did that make you feel when you got that like shit here's the thing and this is the thing that i still have to work on it makes me not trust myself it makes me not trust

myself because i'm like hurt people hurt people i totally get that and I have grace I really do because I do I do know that he was hurt and is hurt but like how did I how was I married to this person for this long and I had no idea that that that bit of character was tucked within that human being that's what's hard for me that's what's hard for me when i go all the way back to the beginning of this interview and your friends were like you have way more to gain than she does don't let him take blah and then i get it the feeling of like oh my god it's fucking happening yeah it's it's all happening it's a really shit feeling and i also appreciate you being like i have to somewhat blame myself like that it it's hard to yeah you gotta like

look inward of like what did I miss it takes two to tango totally fully and I think anyone that like looks at the downfall of any kind of relationship and just points their finger has a lot of work to do on themselves you know like I've I take a lot of ownership and I like you know I write in the I write in there like I've shared all my secrets and I paid for all my crimes like I was not perfect but I gave my honesty to who I owed it to. When you look back at this whole situation, what part of yourself do you feel like you lost or you kind of like silenced and pushed down during that marriage

that now you're like, whoa, like look at me now. Like I feel like I'm like. Awake. I think that I. Allowed there to be. Such a fear. Around. Getting divorced at 29.

I think for me. I think he. Loved me more at 23. And I love me more at 29. are you finding a more positive spin than rather accepting the shame that society puts on women of like oh god she's divorced I think it's just all about forward motion you know like first of all asking yourself the question would you rather be lonely in a relationship or lonely alone? Coming to terms with that.

Blowing up your life. Just in letting it, letting the dust settle where it's going to. That's been hard for me. I love that you use the word blowing up your life because I really do feel. I had a white picket fence. No, yeah. And I feel like it feels that way, right? And I bet so many people listening are in a situation where they're like oh fuck I wish I was you Kelsey because I haven't blown my shit up yet and I'm just staying in it because I don't know how to

end it and I don't know if you have any advice to someone of like how the fuck do you get the courage because in your mind you actually are saying I'm about to blow my life up. You're not. Yeah. Like, but I, it's, I'm not, I would say the same thing if I was going through it. It feels like that in the moment. So how do you, now that you're on the other side of it to speak to people, maybe that are like, I can't blow my life up.

Like our families like each other and our friends and our lives are entangled. Like we have a house together. We may have kids together. Like, what do you say to someone that's like stuck in it? and our lives are entangled like we have a house together we may have kids together like yeah what do you say to someone that's like stuck in it i think asking yourself what the worst case scenario is like is the worst case scenario feeling like you're feeling forever or is it his mom being mad at you is it tmz running a story what is that the worst case scenario it's all right you're right worst case is fucking staying in something that makes you miserable worst case is staying in something

where you are not honoring yourself and in doing that you're not honoring them and you're not allowing them to go live the life that they want to live you go through this divorce you are like oh my god we're like let's take a sip of what you're like we should have been fucking drinking we should have been so you go through this divorce yeah you're finding yourself you're figuring your shit out yes ma'am how did you know you were ready to date again oh god am i ready to date again looks like it um i don't know i you know listen i think obviously he and i's healing journeys are different i think i grieved a lot of the marriage in the marriage and so i think i was ready to open back up and i don't i actually have no idea what his journey is right now but um

i i've just felt why not yeah why not I've never really dated I don't know how it works I'm like well let's just put ourselves out there let's just vibe and um and it's it's been fun I love that too because I feel like and I get it like we just talked about like a bunch of like a relationship and divorce and then I'm like so what about dating it's like you gotta move on you have to am I just supposed to stay here? No. And just be sad forever? No. Please don't. Right?

You deserve better. Yeah. Are you single? Am I single? Am I single? Gosh. No. I just want to be so clear on Call Her Daddy. Every time I ask someone if they're single, if it's not an immediate, no. I just want to be so clear on Call Her Daddy.

Every time I ask someone if they're single, if it's not an immediate, yeah. You didn't even have to say no, no. You're like, um. I know, I know, I know, I know. Can I go to the bathroom? So you're dating Chase Stokes. I'm just vibing. Okay, well, I want to say you guys are.

I'm sweating. You're like, no comment. comment okay can I ask you yes I agree anything yeah at this point we go way back Jesus we saw the photo of you and Chase and now there's more photos of you and Chase what does it feel like though to have that be so public and like did you at all think about your ex and like what he would think when he saw those photos no no well no because I'm not married to him anymore and I don't need to care about his feelings anymore right and I mean that with all the respect in the world but his journey is not mine anymore um and so i hope that he is protected from whatever he needs to be protected from seeing i hope he has people in his life that help him do that that is not my job how did you that's gonna be a hot take and i'm gonna get picked apart for that what are you supposed to

do not do stuff because an ex is gonna see it and i'm not exploiting what I am or am not doing. Well, you're about to right now. Oh, yeah. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Yeah. No, because I do want to be respectful. And also, it's new.

Everything's new for me. Dating, being photographed with someone, like it's all really new. And I'm tiptoeing. And I'm like happy. And I'm really relearning a lot about myself and how I show up in a relationship and how I show up for myself. And it's been like a really beautiful reawakening, I guess. And I love how you're trying to fluff around. I'm about to come right back in. How did you guys meet? I slid into his DMs.

I fucking love when people slide into DMs. What did you say? Well, I was just like, I'm not going to get on an app. And honestly, you know, he shoots in Charleston. And my manager lives there. And he like put the bug in my ear. He was like, you know who's really cute? Like when you're ready, it's Chase.

And I was like, you're so right. And I've never seen the show. But I just knew of him. And yeah, so I followed him. And I was like, you're so right. And I've never seen the show. And, but I just knew of him. Um, and yeah, so I followed him and he followed me and I just swam over right on in. You have to not maybe give us the exact, but give us an idea of like,

what the fuck are you sliding in with? Um, his handle is high chase jokes. And I said, hi, chase dogs. Oh, wow.

And then he immediately answered. You guys kind of look at you we're manifesting baby okay so now that you're kind of in a now a new relationship how are you in your head are you letting yourself just go for it are you being mindful about like do you have a certain different way about going into a relationship now with what you've learned in your past for sure chair oh I just I feel I feel like because I'm in I think I'm finally an adult I think that just happened over the last couple of years and I feel like what that means to me is like I have opinions I have a career that is a priority for me to show up for myself and the people that I've

aligned with along this journey. Um, and, um, I have aspirations and goals that are tied to no one. And those are all really important things. I have my shit together. You know what I mean? And for me to share that with anyone is a gift. And I want to, I want to be with someone that feels the same way about their life. And, um, I want it to feel to be with someone that feels the same way about their life and um I want it to feel even that middle ground that I'm so bad at I'm eager to find it okay you have to just give us a little insight of like going on a date with someone and then a photo of them just being like all over the internet what do the two of you say when that should happen like when you're sitting in your apartment or you're with him you're in your house where the fuck are you what are you guys saying

when that comes out wherever you are what is happening when that comes out well he he kind of full sent it a little bit um so basically we had been hanging out and people got a photo of us um at the game at the championship and so that was kind of just going and he was like I mean it's gonna keep going so should I just like poke the bear and I was like sure and the poking the bear was like a photo of me just like leaning leaning on him how long had you guys been together before that photo leaked um I mean I we weren't even together is like so relative I don't even really know like we have been talking for since the beginning of December okay so you were just like we're just going for it you're having fun I'm having I'm

having fun what is your mentality now around marriage getting married again would you ever do it how do you feel about it anytime i've said a hard no to something i've come back later in my life and challenged it so right now i would i would say i don't think i will i will get married again um i love the idea again of partnership i'm a relationship bitch but i i don't know if i believe in like the legality of it all um anymore and I think if you want to be with someone it should be a daily choice um I am also just fresh out of like a that was like a brutal moment so um subject to change right you're like alimony the house you're like marriage is a full just date yeah i get it i get it what would you say to someone right now in this moment that's listening watching and is going

through heartbreak oh um i would say be proud of how you're going to handle it in 10 years. I would say only way out is through. And I would say, like, tequila. So much tequila. I love you. You're like, so much tequila. It gets you right through. It's going to be all right. It's going to be all right. It's going to be all right.

What would you say to 22 year old Kelsey right now in the seat where you're sitting? Oh, my God. Oh, what would I tell myself at 22? You are going to learn that pissing people off is okay and actually it's necessary you are going to learn that you can be a good person and not good for somebody you are going to learn that um your circle needs to shrink a little bit and that's gonna hurt and that's gonna be awesome and you're gonna learn that 29 is gonna look a hell of a lot different than you thought it would and so far so

good kelsey ballerini thank you so much for coming and call her daddy thank you so much Bye.