Country stars Carly Pearce and Michael Ray have called it quits.
After eight months of marriage, the “Every Little Thing” singer-songwriter filed for divorce from the “Her World or Mine” singer on Friday, their reps confirm to PEOPLE exclusively.
“This was a hard decision. It wasn’t something she wanted to have to do,” a source close to Pearce tells PEOPLE. “This hasn’t been a quarantine realization – it was a last resort.”
Ray, 32, and Pearce, 30, last appeared in public together on June 6, when they both performed without a live audience at the Grand Ole Opry. They were joined on the bill by Steve Wariner and Lee Brice (Pearce’s duet partner on their No. 1 smash “I Hope You’re Happy Now”), who sat between them on stage during their performances.
Ahead of the performance, Ray told PEOPLE that he and Pearce were splitting their time in quarantine amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic between their place in Nashville and their families’ homes. He said they spent a month together in the coastal Alabama home of Pearce’s parents, where they kept busy by going on a lot of “wine walks.”
“You just drink wine and walk around a small town,” Ray said. “I don’t think I’ve ever walked more in my life. I felt like we were retired. We just didn’t have anything else to do but walk.”
Ray also said that he and Pearce were getting restless being off their tours for so long.
“It’s been a hard time for everybody,” Ray said. “But we’ve really tried to find the silver lining in it, and go, ‘We’re not getting out of this, so how do we make the most of it?’”
In recent months, eagle-eyed fans started noticing the couple – known to be vocal about their love on social media – were posting about each other less and less. Ray and Pearce last posted birthday tributes for each other on Instagram on April 24 and April 29, respectively, while Ray also posted a congratulatory note for Pearce on his Instagram Story after “I Hope You’re Happy Now” topped the charts last week.
On her birthday, Pearce opened up to PEOPLE about her decision to spend time in isolation in Alabama with her family.
“I got scared,” she said. “My mom has weak lungs, and she had some scares last year with pneumonia – I just didn’t want to be seven hours away from her right now. I’m an only child, so I made that decision.”
“Michael has been here the majority of the time, but he’s working on new music and trying to figure out how to make an album in this quarantine,” she added. “He’s been in Nashville and he went to see his family too. It’s been a crazy time, but a content time. To be able for us to spend this much time together and with my parents at this time has been a blessing … We really have been operating like two normal people rather than two artists juggling schedules and never seeing each other.”
Ray and Pearce got married on Oct. 6, 2019, on a Nashville-area farm in front of about 100 family members and friends.
“Knowing without a shadow of a doubt that I didn’t settle for something less than truly the person that I think was made for me is something that I am thankful for,” Pearce told PEOPLE at the time.
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