Singing the blues. Carly Pearce and Riley King have called it quits after two years together.
“Things didn’t work out,” King, 29, told Page Six on Wednesday, June 7. “Carly and I have parted ways and I wish her nothing but the best in both her career and personal life.”
Pearce, for her part, has yet to publicly comment on the breakup. However, the Grammy winner, 33, hinted at a rocky relationship on Monday, June 5, while promoting her latest collaboration track, “We Don’t Fight Anymore,” which features Chris Stapleton.
“This song embodies a place that I think, if we are honest with ourselves, we’ve all felt at some point in a relationship. The distance that feels heartbreaking, yet you’re also indifferent,” Pearce wrote via Instagram at the time. “I’ve always been a writer who never wanted to shy away from the ‘uncomfortable’ moments in all of our lives, and this song feels too important not to share.”
The Kentucky native didn’t reveal which of her relationships served as the track’s inspiration, but the announcement came just weeks after eagle-eyed fans noticed a lack of social media interaction between Pearce and King.
In February, the “What He Didn’t Do” artist showed King support via Instagram after he won “Rookie of the Year” at his real estate group. The Montana native, for his part, last commented on one of Pearce’s pictures on May 16, joking that her dog “needs a margarita” while the singer floated with her pooch in the pool.
The “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” singer and the former MLB player were first linked in May 2021 after the musician shared a picture of King via her Instagram Stories. The twosome went public with their relationship six months later while attending the 2021 CMA Awards.
“He’s not new, I’m just not putting him out into the world like I have in the past,” Pearce said of her then-boyfriend in November 2021 during an appearance on Audacy’s Gunner & Cheyenne radio show. “He’s hot. He’s so hot. … And I’m certainly not trying to hide him, but certainly don’t want to exploit my whole thing.”
As the couple continued to keep a low-profile, the “Every Little Thing” songstress gave fans a rare glimpse at their dynamic while attending the 2023 CMT Music Awards with her partner.
“We’re doing great. This is all he wants for me to do,” Pearce told E! News on the red carpet in April. “I think it’s really hard to find a supportive significant other when you live this crazy life, and he does it like a champ.”
The following month, the pair made a joint appearance at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Frisco, Texas. Their relationship seemingly fizzled out toward the end of May.
Ahead of her romance with King, Pearce was briefly married to Michael Ray. Us Weekly confirmed in June 2020 that the country musicians called it quits after eight months of marriage. Their divorce was finalized in September of that year.
“It was awful. I mean, I’m being completely honest with you, that it was so embarrassing. It was so shameful,” the “Hide the Wine” singer exclusively told Us in February 2021. “I felt like I had failed. I felt like … I would never find love again because I was divorced at so young, and [I] was just embarrassed.”
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Pearce turned to her music as an outlet for her heartbreak and created her 29 record in the process. “I genuinely am finding so much more purpose to my life than I even knew was possible,” she shared. “I feel like I’m giving a face to something that so many people, especially young people carry so much shame around — divorce. That’s not a sexy term. Especially as a young person, you’re like, ‘How am I divorced?’ And I’m really proud of that. I think that’s why we’re put on this Earth anyways, is to impact people. If I can do that in a small way like this, I would do it all again.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Pearce for comment on her and King’s split.
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