After eight months of marriage, country singer-songwriter Carly Pearce filed for divorce from her husband, fellow country artist Michael Ray on Friday, June 19.
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Reps for both artists confirmed the news to PEOPLE.
"This was a hard decision. It wasn't something she wanted to have to do," a source close to Pearce told PEOPLE. "This hasn't been a quarantine realization — it was a last resort."
The couple had been splitting their time during quarantine between their respective family homes.
In April, Pearce told PEOPLE she decided to spend time with her family in Alabama. Ray visited Pearce in Alabama, but also spent time in Nashville, Tennessee.
"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," Pearce said. "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."
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While Pearce and Ray had known each other for several years, their romance began to blossom during a small party at Pearce's house in June of 2018. That same night, they had their first date at the Nashville Palace, a beloved historic honky tonk in Music City. They announced their engagement in December of 2018. Pearce and Ray married on October 6, 2019 at Drakewood Farm in Nashville.
"It was just this very certain moment," Pearce told People in 2019. "More certain than I've ever been: 'That is who you're going to be with.'"
The country star couple made their most recent public appearance together at the Grand Ole Opry, where they both performed, on June 6.
Pearce released her self-titled sophomore album this year. Michael Ray released his most recent album, Amos, in 2018.
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