Country singer Sara Evans is reflecting on her “really horrific” divorce from ex-husband Craig Schelske — which led to her departure from Dancing With the Stars in 2006.
“I was killing myself. It was so exhausting,” Evans, 53, said during the Thursday, April 4, episode of her “Diving in Deep” podcast. “It was one of the hardest times in my life.”
The singer admitted that her “marriage was dissolving” months before becoming a DWTS cast member during the show’s third season. “I knew that I needed to get out of the marriage, but I didn’t believe in divorce, I didn’t want to divorce.”
Evans and Schelske were married from 1993 to 2007 and share three kids together. She filed for divorce in October 2006, accusing Schelske of infidelity, verbal and emotional abuse and claiming that he watched pornography in their house. Accusations which he denied at the time. Nearly a year later, the divorce was finalized with the pair getting joint custody of their kids.
After meeting her DWTS partner, Tony Dovolani, he asked what was going on in her marriage. That was the moment Evans realized it was “obvious” she and Schelske were having major problems.
“As I was appearing on Dancing With the Stars, the marriage was breaking down. We tried marriage counseling a lot,” Evans continued, noting it felt like her ex-husband was “pulling me back” in terms of career milestones.
“He wanted to be at every episode and come down here and be seen on TV, on camera,” Evans claimed. “Also at the same time, he was trying to make a case against me to show that I was working and not being a good mom.”
While Evans was on DWTS, she would also have to fulfill concerts that had already been booked — all while dealing with marital issues.
“I would be on Dancing with the Stars, and you could see some of the episodes, my eyes were just blood red swollen because I’d been crying the whole day, missing my kids,” Evans recalled, saying that she’s “glad” for the DWTS experience despite it occurring during a “horrific time” in her life.
Eventually, Evans said she “reached my limit” and called divorce attorneys in Nashville.
“The behavior was so bad, and I just realized I don’t want to raise these children with him, with this,” she alleged. “I’m not going to say why, but there were very good reasons why.”
Evans claimed that things were “getting scary” with her ex and things came to a breaking point when she was out to dinner with her kids after a DWTS taping. “Something happened at the restaurant,” Evans said, not offering details — but revealing her plans to file for divorce the following day.
“I had to quit Dancing with the Stars because the next day we were going to start the group dance rehearsals and because of the trauma that my children went through at the restaurant,” Evans recalled announcing her departure from the show, without offering details. “[I had to] explain that my kids were traumatized and I’m not leaving them for five seconds, and so I have to quit the show.”
She married current husband, Jay Barker — a former football player and radio host — in June 2008.
