Blindsided — or just blind? Morgan Evans slammed Kelsea Ballerini after the singer released her EP, Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, about their messy divorce.
“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, 37, wrote via Instagram on Tuesday, February 21. “She knows I’m not the type of guy to speak on those things publicly. If this is what she needs to heal, I hope it helps.”
The Australia native requested that no one be “mean” — to Ballerini, 29, or “each other” — while scrolling his social media pages. “Life’s too short,” he concluded the post.
Evans’ post comes just hours after the “Subject to Change” singer appeared to comment on their rocky romance in a teaser for the Wednesday, February 22, episode of the “Call Me Daddy” podcast. Days earlier, Ballerini released her six-track breakup record — on Valentine’s Day — that features the country crooner seemingly chronicling her feelings on their divorce. (The twosome tied the knot in December 2017 and were married for five years before Ballerini filed for divorce in August 2022.)
Following their split, Evans dropped his own single, “Over for You,” in September 2022, which seemingly asked his ex questions about the end of their relationship and hinted that he was blindsided by the breakup.
“How long have you been breaking? Why am I just finding out? How long has it been over for you?” he asks in the song.
Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, however, appears to address — and dispute — the “Young Again” artist’s claims in tracks like “Mountain With a View,” “Penthouse,” “Just Married,” “Interlude” and the aptly titled “Blindsided.”
“And now you’re saying that you’re lost / And that’s lost on me,” Ballerini sings on the breakup tune. “Years of sitting across from me in therapy / I know the truth is hard to hear, but it wasn’t hard to find / Baby, were you blindsided or were you just blind?”
After the release of her EP, Ballerini explained in a statement that she “wasn’t worried about anything other than presenting the songs as honestly as possible” and that the record is how she “processed” her marriage ending.
“It’s the way I got my feelings out of my body and heart and put them to music, which is the purest way I could’ve handled it,” she explained at the time.
In addition to Rolling Up the Welcome Mat, the Tennessee native’s episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast appears to candidly discuss her and Evans’ messy split.
In a clip released prior to the full episode on Tuesday, Ballerini threw shade at Evans for his lyrics in “Over for You.”
“As he’s putting out a song about being blindsided, he’s taking half the house that he didn’t pay for. 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?” she said, adding that things became “nasty” between the exes following their separation.
While both the Grammy nominee and the “Kiss Somebody” crooner navigate their individual healing journeys, Ballerini has recently been romantically linked to Outer Banks star Chase Stokes. The two were first seen together in January at the College Football Playoff National Championship in Los Angeles. That same month, Stokes, 30, posted a photo of himself cozying up to the “Doin My Best” singer via Instagram as the two exchanged flirty comments.
Ballerini, meanwhile, seemingly will address her relationship status during Wednesday’s “Call Her Daddy.”
“Am I ready to date again? … I’ve never really dated. I don’t know how it works,” she says in the podcast teaser. “Am I single? No.”
