Kelsea Ballerini’s ex-husband Morgan Evans took to Instagram on Tuesday to address comments she has made about the end of their marriage.
“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. “She knows I’m not the type of guy to speak on those things publicly.”
The 37-year-old country singer-songwriter added: “If this is what she needs to heal, I hope it helps. All I ask if 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.”
Ballerini has not held back in publicly criticizing Evans, to whom she was married for nearly five years.
“He’s putting out a song about being blindsided. He's taking half the house that he didn't pay for," she said on the Call Her Daddy podcast. “How was I married to this person for this long and I had no idea… that bit of character was tucked within that human being.”
Ballerini said their marriage “took work for a long time” and involved separations and couples therapy. She felt “a sense of disconnection” and a “lack of effort to see each other.”
She shared: “I was getting resentful because any time 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.”
Ballerini, 29, said she slept many nights 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.’”
Announcing last summer that she had filed for divorce, Ballerini wrote in an Instagram post: "This deeply difficult decision is the result of a journey of love, growth, and effort that ultimately has come to an end. ... I feel extremely grateful for the years of marriage to Morgan ... we are both fragile, actively healing, and showing up the best we can."
Following their split, Evans wrote “Over For You,” in which he sings: “It kills me to know you were drifting alone / You don't have to stay, no / But can I say before you go? / I would have searched the whole world over for you / Took a flight, through the night / To be that shoulder for you, and I would've let go if you wanted me to.”
Ballerini countered in songs she released on the EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat.
“I think we're done tryin’ / I realize you loved me much more at 23 / I think that this is when it's over for me,” she sings on “Mountain With a View.”
On “Blindsided,” Ballerini sings: “I’d go write a song, and you'd go for a walk / We had to get drunk to ever really talk / I told you what I needed, didn't have to read my mind / So, were you blindsided or were you just blind?”
This post has been updated to remove references to tweets that were subsequently deleted.