Kelsea Ballerini is letting her emotions run high in the days after her highly publicized ongoing divorce from fellow country singer Morgan Evans.
On Saturday evening (Sept. 3), the country superstar shared a vulnerable video documenting “a complex time” in her life. The clip was soundtracked to Katie Gregson-MacLeod’s “Complex (demo),” a heartbreak anthem that was released in August of 2022.
Ballerini lip-syncs along to the Gregson-MacLeod lyrics: “I’m wearing his boxers / I’m being a good wife / We won’t be together / But maybe the next life / I need him like watеr / He lives on a landslide / I cry in his bathroom / Hе turns off the big light / I’m being a cool girl / I’m keeping it so tight / I carry him home while / My friends have a good night / I need him like water / He thinks that I’m alright / I’m not feeling human / I think he’s a good guy…”
In the video, Ballerini is seen sitting naked, wearing only jewelry, in a bathtub full of water with black eyeliner and mascara running down her cheeks, presumably from crying. As the vulnerable clip continues, Ballerini lays back and submerges herself in the water.
The TikTok video comes less than a week after Ballerini announced that she and Evans are divorcing after nearly five years of marriage.
“Friends, I’ve always tried my best to share my life with you in a real and vulnerable way, while also protecting layers of my personal life as they unfold,” Ballerini said in a statement. ”This is now public record so I wanted you to hear from me directly that I am going through a divorce.”
The “Heartfirst” singer then said she will always cherish the memories that she made together.
“It’s hard to find the words here…but I feel extremely grateful for the years of marriage to Morgan and hopeful for the next seasons,” Ballerini added. “With very active schedules coming up, please be mindful that we are both fragile, actively healing, and showing up the best we can.”
Evans later confirmed their split in a statement of his own.
“I am very sad to confirm that after almost 5 years of marriage, Kelsea and I are parting ways,” he wrote on Instagram stories. “I wish it were otherwise but sadly it is not.”
According to PEOPLE, Ballerini filed for divorce from Evans on Friday (Aug. 26). A source also told the outlet that the couple “have been working on their marriage for a very long time.”
“Prior to this they had separated privately once before and have been in therapy for several years,” a source also told PEOPLE. “They gave it their best go but unfortunately arrived at the decision to formally separate.”
Ballerini and Evans met in March of 2016 while co-hosting the CMC Awards in Australia. The couple got engaged in December of 2016 and tied the knot a year and a half later in an intimate beachside ceremony in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
The news of her divorce comes just days before the release of her new song, “What I Have,” a tune that will appear on her forthcoming new album, Subject To Change.
Co-written by Ballerini alongside Cary Barlowe and Alysa Vanderheym, “What I Have” finds the singer counting her blessings while coming to the realization that “you don’t got to shine to be gold.”
Arriving on September 23, Ballerini’s fifth studio album, Subject To Change, will feature 15 tracks, including “Little Things,” “Love Is A Cowboy,” as well as the project’s lead single “Heartfirst.”
“In my younger years, the idea of change scared me. It had proven to be a faceless force that patterned my past with uncertainty. Only in the gift of growth have I learned that in the stark and constant juxtaposition of life, living happens,” she previously explained of the project on Instagram. “That when I unclench my fists, undig my heels and unravel the architecture built by youth, a true metamorphosis can happen.”
She continued, “I’ve been searching somewhere between the broadness of the universe and the simplicity in the little things, reflecting through wiser perspectives, leaning with body weight into matters of the heart, and finding blissful acceptance in the inner cracks I once cursed that now let the light in to grow taller within myself. This is a season of becoming, healing, loving, dancing, and feeling. And like everything, it is subject to change.”
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Subject To Change marks the country hitmaker’s first full-length project since the release of her companion albums kelsea and ballerini in 2020.
Additionally, Ballerini will soon embark on an intimate tour, dubbed the Heartfirst Tour, which includes just 10 shows to celebrate her new album.
The trek, which is set to kick off on September 24 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, will visit several major cities, including Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and more.
Tickets for Ballerini’s Heartfirst Tour are available now HERE.
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See a full list of the East Tennessee native’s Heartfirst Tour dates below.
09/24 New York, NY Radio City Music Hall
10/06 Los Angeles, CA Greek Theatre
10/09 Kansas City, MO The Midland Theatre
10/14 Mashantucket, CT Premier Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino