Kelsea Ballerini is giving a penthouse view of her divorce from Morgan Evans.
On the latest episode of Call Her Daddy, the country singer—who filed for divorce in August after nearly five years of marriage—detailed the demise of her relationship. "There was separations, there was years of couples therapy," Ballerini, 29, told host Alex Cooper. "There was, like, many a nights of sleeping on the couch. Like, this was just a relationship that took work for a long time."
Amid Ballerini's candid confessions as well as her deeply personal EP, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, Evans—who released his own breakup song "Over For You"—has spoken out. "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 and that leave out what really happened," Evans wrote in a Feb. 21 Instagram message. "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," he added. "All I ask is that if you're on my pages, please don't be mean. Don't be mean to Kelsea, don't be mean to each other. Life's too short."
For Ballerini's side of the story, keep scrolling for her Call Her Daddy bombshells, including details on her new relationship with Chase Stokes.
Why Did Kelsea Ballerini Want to End Her Marriage to Morgan Evans?
Ballerini reflected on how she felt she and Evans were on different pages throughout their marriage.
"I slept on the couch the night before the CMAs and I remember I went to rehearsal at the arena and texting him and him being like, 'I'll just see you at the carpet,'" she shared. "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.
It was exhausting, she said: "I was just tired of showing up in that way all the time and not feeling like I was seen or matched."
As for the moment she knew it was over between them? "I was realizing that I wasn't ready for kids, and that's a fundamental difference," Ballerini said. "And I still don't know if I want kids at all or not. But that was something we had talked about early on and that was something that I was changing on."
And the 37-year-old Aussie was ready to start a family. "He was like, 'I don't want to be an old dad,'" she revealed. "I was like, 'I'm not there yet. And I can't do that to save this and give you something that I'm not ready for, I just can't do that to myself.'"
She decided to tell him that for her 30th birthday, she was going to freeze her eggs. But that news didn't sit well with her, she alleged. "That was when I was, like, there's a fundamental difference here that has happened, that has shifted," Ballerini recalled. "And it's no longer like, 'I don't see this person, I miss this person, I'm alone, I'm lonely.'"
Have Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan Evans Talked Since Their Breakup?
Before publicly announcing their divorce, Ballerini says she had an "honest" conversation with Evans.
"I was like, '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,'" she detailed. "'I really wanna, like, honor the good that we've experienced by doing this the right way.' And it was beautiful. We cried. We hugged, it was sweet."
But, she admitted, something changed afterwards. "I haven't talked to him since," Ballerini said. "After that conversation obviously you lawyer up and you tell your team and you get your people and everything kind of just shifted. I'm at peace with it now."
When Cooper said the split "got nasty," Ballerini agreed, "It did."
How Does Kelsea Ballerini Feel About Morgan Evans' Breakup Song "Over You"?
The answer? "So angry," she said.
"I had a pretty good grasp on my grieving journey until that song came out and I was livid," Ballerini admitted of the track. "I did not blindside him. I think two things can be true. And I think if he truly was blindsided, then where was he? And that's the point."
Instead, she called it "opportunistic" for him to drop the track in the fall of 2022, while they were still going through divorce proceedings. (Ballerini confirmed during a Nov. 15 Grand Ole Opry performance that she'd finalized her divorce earlier that day.)
"I felt really used in that moment," she remembered. "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 months past it, we're moving on and I've taken the time to actually sit in my feelings and go through that grieving process and take ownership of what I brought to the table too, you know? And that's why this EP...I'm nervous to put it out for sure, but I wish I would've had it in August."
Did Kelsea Ballerini and Morgan Evans Have a Prenup?
Despite having a prenup, Ballerini claims that Evans wanted half of the house.
When she found out from her lawyers,
"I just remember being on the phone and being like, 'Can you articulate to me that I have a choice right now to either give up half a house that I bought, he contributed but not equal, or...have like public alimony hearings? Indefinitely?'" she shared. "And they were like, 'That's correct.' And I was like, 'Give him the house. I want out, get me out.'"
How Did Kelsea Ballerini and Chase Stokes Meet?
After confirming she's not single, Cooper asked Ballerini if she's dating Chase, who she's been spending time with recently. "I'm just vibing," Ballerini said. "I'm sweating!"
As for how they met? "I slid into his DMs," she confessed. "I was just like, 'I'm not gonna get on an app.' And honestly, he shoots in Charleston and my manager lives there and he put the bug in my ear. He was like, 'You know who's really cute? When you're ready. Chase.' And I was like, 'You're so right.' And I've never seen the show but I just knew of him and yeah, I followed him and he followed me and I just swan dove right on in. His handle is @hichasestokes and I said, 'Hi Chase Stokes.'"
And the rest is history.