Kelsea Ballerini & Morgan Evans’ War of Words About Divorce

Kelsea Ballerini opened up about her ex-husband Morgan Evans on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast, and he’s hitting back.

During the podcast, Kelsea delves into the ups and downs of their marriage and how she slid into the DMs of her rumored new boyfriend, “Outer Banks” star Chase Stokes.

Kelsea and Morgan wed in 2017, and they announced they were divorcing in August.

Ballerini said her first year of marriage with Morgan was “rainbows and butterflies,” but after the one-year mark “there were separations, there was years of couples therapy, there were like many a night of sleeping on the couch. This was just a relationship that took work for a long time.”

She went on, "I don't think it was the first night, but it was a night where I was like, ‘This is not what I want,’” adding, "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.'"

Cooper asked what those nights looked like fight-wise, and Kelsea said, “We didn’t fight,” nodding when Alex asked if it was just silent. Kelsea said she coped by compartmentalizing her life.

She said they started couples therapy during year two, because she felt things were “really lopsided” and feeling like their relationship “would not be alive if I didn’t do everything.”

Alex asked when the spark in their marriage died, and Kelsea said that based on her religious upbringing and one past relationship, she found it “difficult to connect in that way from the very beginning.”

Adding, “I don’t think I even understood what a good sexual relationship was… When we saw each other — not very often ­— I understood that would be something he wanted and needed and I wanted to be a good wife.”

Was she lonely? She said, “For sure.”

During the chat, Kelsea made comments about paying for things, and Alex asked when she became resentful about “financially funding the relationship.” She answered, “When I just simply didn’t see him. I got to a place where I was like if I wasn’t killing myself to figure out how this overlaps and how this works as I’m busy we wouldn’t exist… he was touring, he was doing it all. I just think if you want to, you will.”

Kelsea said she brought up divorce first, explaining, “The moment I think it was ‘over, over’ was me realizing I wasn’t ready for kids… but that was something we talked about early on and that was something I was changing on.”

She told him that for her 30th birthday she wanted to freeze her eggs and, “It was not a good day.” That’s when she realized they had fundamental differences, saying, “He wants something different out of life, and I’m not there.”

Eventually, she asked for a separation. At one point, they saw each other and had the conversation about divorce. “It was like a really beautiful conversation, if I’m honest with you… I said, like, ‘I’ve loved what this has brought in my life. I respect you, I respect me, and because of that, I can no longer be in this marriage. I really want to do this together and I really want to honor the good we’ve experienced by doing this the right way.’ We cried, we hugged and then something changed and I haven’t talked to him since.”

When Alex asked if it got “nasty,” Kelsea said, “Yeah.” She later added, “One thing he was so diehard about in the beginning is, ‘I don’t ever want people to think I’m using you’… and I never felt like he did… and then we got divorced and who you marry is not who you divorce. As he’s putting out a song about being blindsided, he’s taking half of a house he didn’t pay for.”

She shared, “I did get a prenup,” adding, “It was kind of like [half the house] or alimony.”

Ballerini said she recognizes that “hurt people, hurt people,” but it makes her wonder, “How was I married to this person for this long and had no idea that that bit of character was tucked within that human being?”

Kelsea said that the song he released during the divorce about being blindsided makes her feel “so angry,” saying, “I did not blindside him.” Taking a dig at how present he was in the marriage she pointed out, “If he truly was blindsided, then where was he? And that’s the point.”

At one point, Ballerini insisted, “I don’t pin the whole downfall on him at all. I was not perfect, he was not perfect, it was not perfect. There were definitely moments that I look back on where I’m like, ‘I should have done that different.’”

She went on, “In the unraveling that is something that I ended up sharing with him, just saying that I need to own the last few years, I think I checked out a long time ago.”

Would she get married again? The star answered, “Right now, I would say I don’t think I will get married again.”

Now it is about “forward motion” — and she’s moving on. Kelsea has been linked to “Outer Banks” star Chase Stokes, sharing, “I’ve never really dated. I don’t know how it works. I’m, like, ‘Let’s just put ourselves out there and let’s just vibe.’”

Is she “single”? She laughed, saying, “Um… nope.” When asked if she’s dating Chase, she said, “I’m just vibing.” At one point, Alex asked how they met. Ballerini confessed, “I slid into his DMs.” She added, “I’ve never seen the show, but I knew of him.”

How did she reach out? She admitted, “His handle is @hichasestokes and I said ‘Hi, Chase Stokes.’”

Just days ago, Chase gushed over Kelsea while talking to "Extra." He said, “She’s an incredible human being. I adore her to death. This is a huge moment for her. So, I’m just very, very proud of her.”

When we talked to Kelsea at the Grammys, however, she played coy. Watch!

During the podcast, Alex asked if she was concerned Morgan would see the pics of her and Chase? She said, “No, I’m not married to him anymore and I don’t have to care about his feelings anymore, and I mean that with all the respect in the world, but his journey is not mine.”

She called her new life a “beautiful reawakening.”

Morgan responded on Instagram, writing, “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. She knows I’m not the type of guy to speak on these things publicly.”

He added, “If this is what she needs to heal, I hope it helps. All I ask is that if you’re on my page, please don’t be mean. Don’t be mean to Kelsea, don’t be mean to each other.”