Zac Brown's Ex Kelly Yazdi Says She Will "Not Be Silenced" in Scathing Message Amid Divorce

Zac Brown’s estranged wife Kelly Yazdi shared a statement after the “Chicken Fried” singer filed for a temporary restraining order against her.

By Brahmjot Kaur May 20, 2024 5:40 PMTags
Watch: Zac Brown's Ex Kelly Yazdi Posts Scathing Message Amid Their Divorce

Kelly Yazdi is sharing her truth.

After Zac Brown filed a lawsuit against his estranged wife on May 17, which saw him ask a judge for a temporary restraining order that would require her to take down an Instagram post that he argued tarnished his public image, she responded with a lengthy social media message.

"No one—not even Zac Brown with all of his money, power, celebrity, and lawyers," Kelly captioned a May 19 TikTok video, "may silence my right to freely express myself through art or, although I have to date declined to do so publicly, to speak about the circumstances of our pending divorce."

She continued, "I intend to respond swiftly and robustly to his meritless complaint that publication of two poems on my personal social media account divulged any ‘confidential information' about his business, much less authorizes a court to enjoin me from speaking about matters in my personal life that have nothing to do with my brief former work for the Zac Brown Collective, Inc."

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Kelly—who tied the knot with the Grammy winner last August before announcing their split just four months later—noted that she initially chose not to respond to the "unnecessary" and "legally meritless" lawsuit.

"I have made no public response to either of those very public, very unnecessary personal attacks on me by my celebrity soon-to-be-ex-husband," Kelly wrote. "But it is clearly Zac, not me, who has strategically chosen to drag our difficult divorce negotiations into the public eye with these tactics in an effort to portray himself as a victim and to use his vast resources to silence me from telling the truth about our marriage."

@kelly_yazdi No one — not even Zac Brown with all of his money, power, celebrity, and lawyers – may silence my right to freely express myself through art or, although I have to date declined to do so publicly, to speak about the circumstances of our pending divorce. I intend to respond swiftly and robustly to his meritless complaint that publication of two poems on my personal social media account divulged any “confidential information” about his business, much less authorizes a court to enjoin me from speaking about matters in my personal life that have nothing to do with my brief former work for the Zac Brown Collective, Inc.    It is beyond ironic that Zac’s first act after filing an unnecessary public divorce lawsuit was to release a music video that deliberately mocked our wedding party from only a few months before — including a false and defamatory caricature obviously intended to be me and hurt me – followed by a second unnecessary and legally meritless public lawsuit and press release, yet he now claims his “only hope” is that we show each other “mutual respect” by keeping “private matters private” as we negotiate the terms of our divorce.    In a misguided effort to do just that, I have made no public response to either of those very public, very unnecessary personal attacks on me by my celebrity soon-to-be-ex-husband.  But it is clearly Zac, not me, who has strategically chosen to drag our difficult divorce negotiations into the public eye with these tactics in an effort to portray himself as a victim and to use his vast resources to silence me from telling the truth about our marriage. It will not work, and I will not be silenced by him no matter how ridiculous his tactics.    Like Zac, I have lawyers too, and I will tell my truth in court — where he has unnecessarily dragged me.  ?? #ButterfliesDontBelongInNets ? original sound - kelly_yazdi

"It will not work, and I will not be silenced by him no matter how ridiculous his tactics," the 33-year-old added. "Like Zac, I have lawyers too, and I will tell my truth in court — where he has unnecessarily dragged me."

The Zac Brown Band frontman accused Kelly of violating a confidentiality agreement she had signed by sharing an Instagram post, which had not been specified, per court documents obtained by NBC News. In addition to seeking an emergency temporary restraining order to remove the post, he also asked the court to prevent Kelly from "making any defamatory, false, untrue, or otherwise damaging statements."

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Regarding his lawsuit, Zac—who shares five kids with first wife Shelly Brown—told NBC News in a statement, "I took the steps necessary to enforce an agreement between us to maintain personal and business affairs in confidence and to protect my family from online harassment and speculation."

E! News has reached out to Zac and Kelly and has not heard back. 

(E! News and NBC News are part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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