Shifting focus. Michelle Branch got back to business by promoting her upcoming tour on social media, just over one week after she was arrested for domestic assault.
“Working on a setlist. What songs do you want to hear on tour??” the “Everywhere” singer, 39, wrote via Twitter on Sunday, August 21. The tour comes amid Branch’s messy split from husband Patrick Carney after three years of marriage.
On August 11, just hours before Us Weekly confirmed that the pair had called it quits, she was arrested for domestic assault and taken into custody after allegedly slapping Carney, 42, during an argument. “Michelle stated that she and her husband are having marital issues and had been arguing,” read court documents obtained by Us. “The argument began at another location and continued when they arrived home. The argument escalated and Michelle admitted to slapping Patrick in the facial area one to two times.”
Carney, for his part, told authorities that the “All You Wanted” singer “slapped him during the argument.” Per court documents, police did not report that the Black Keys drummer had sustained any visible injuries. Branch was booked in Nashville around 2 a.m. and her bail was set at $1,000. She was subsequently released, and her next court date is set for November.
Later that day, the “Fault Line” songstress — who shares son Rhys, 3, and daughter Willa Jaquet, 6 months, with the producer — announced that the couple were divorcing. “To say that I am totally devastated doesn’t even come close to describing how I feel for myself and for my family. The rug has been completely pulled from underneath me and now I must figure out how to move forward,” she said in a statement to Us at the time. “With such small children, I ask for privacy and kindness.” She filed for divorce one day later, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
Branch also accused Carney of cheating on her while she was at home with their baby daughter in a since-deleted tweet. The “Howlin’ For You” musician has not publicly responded to the allegations.
The estranged couple met in 2015 while working on Branch’s Hopeless Romantic album and began dating shortly afterward. “The record wouldn’t have seen the light of day had he not been involved. That’s why it was important for him to be up there — when we were making it felt like us against the world,” the Arizona native gushed about her then-boyfriend during a March 2017 interview with Billboard. “Pat has said, ‘I remember seeing you on MTV in the early 2000s and thinking you were really cute.’ It’s like, why couldn’t we have just met each other in our twenties? We would have saved so much heartache!”
Carney proposed to the “Leave the Pieces” singer on her birthday in July 2017 and the pair tied the knot two years later at the Marigny Opera House in New Orleans. “Favorite moment of 2019,” Branch wrote via Instagram at the time alongside a photo from the nuptials. “Hands down✨❤️.”
Prior to meeting Carney, Branch was married to bass player Teddy Landau from 2004 to 2015. The exes share 17-year-old daughter Owen.
