Maren Morris is focused on herself following her divorce from Ryan Hurd.
“[I’m] not answering to anyone and not having to protect anyone’s feelings but my own and put myself first,” Morris, 33, told Entertainment Tonight at Variety’s Hitmakers Brunch on Saturday, December 2. “And I think that’s going to be a really empowering 2024.”
Us Weekly confirmed in October that Morris — who won Changemaker of the Year on Saturday — filed for divorce from Hurd, 37, after five years of marriage.
“A lot of my friends are going through the same thing right now,” Morris added to ET, noting she’s found solace in her inner circle. “And, like, all their therapists or psychics have said, ‘2024, you need to be single.’”
While the “Tall Guys” singer is similarly unattached, she told the outlet that she’s not ready to “mingle” just yet. However, she is using her new normal as songwriting inspiration.
“There’s a lot of personal stuff right now I’m wading through, processing, writing through,” Morris explained. “I’m giving myself the time to do that and not having to rush a very, huge personal thing through an album being delivered. It’s going to take a little bit longer than I had hoped, but I have to trust the process.”
Morris cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for her divorce, per docs obtained by Us in October. They separated that same month, which initially surprised Hurd.
“[Her decision] seems to have come out of the blue,” a source exclusively told Us at the time. “Ryan wasn’t expecting it.”
The estranged couple reunited weeks later, taking 3-year-old son Hayes trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Morris and Hurd met in 2014 when they were paired to write Tim McGraw’s “Last Turn Home,” instantly becoming friends. The duo started dating one year later, getting engaged in 2017. The singers wed in March 2018, two years before Hayes was born.
“[Ryan’s] always been a creative collaborator in my life, that’s how we met,” Morris previously told Us in March 2019. “We were paired together six years ago to write a song. We didn’t know each other and it just kind of grew from there, so music has always been really intertwined in our love for each other, and now that we aren’t just songwriters, we’re artists, the timing of being married and also touring is very chaotic at times.”
Amid her divorce, Morris is also navigating a shift in her career. She announced in September that she was leaving country music after dealing with increased toxicity. (Morris had been a target for hate in the industry after showcasing her allyship for the LGBTQ+ community.)
“I felt like I don’t want to say goodbye, but I really cannot participate in the really toxic arms of this institution anymore,” she said during an October episode of The New York Times’ “Popcast” podcast. “I don’t know if it’s forever. I’m not shutting off fans of country music, or that’s not my intention. It’s just the music industry that I have to walk away, a few factions from.”
