Carly Pearce On Divorce From Michael Ray: 'I’ve Learned How Strong I Am'

Carly Pearce got candid about her emotional state months after she announced her separation from estranged husband Michael Ray.

Less than a year after tying the knot with Ray, Pearce filed for divorce from her fellow artist in June. Now, the country singer, 30, has shared in a recent exclusive interview with Us Weekly the realizations she made and lessons she learned in the months following their split.

"I think for me, I’ve learned how strong I am," she said Thursday at the 2020 CMA Awards. "[I] learned what it really means to just take back the power."

With both of them being musicians, Pearce admitted that it has not been easy to cope with a public split. But while this made the whole thing more challenging, the singer-songwriter also found that it made her much stronger.

"When you go through things publicly, there’s no hiding. You just kind of have to own it and I’m owning that and trying to see the good in it. I think the good in it is that I’m now able to be somebody that’s reminding women at their worst [all’s not lost]," Pearce said.

"If I can save a woman from being in a relationship or being in something that makes her feel not worthy, then it’s worth it," she added.

Pearce has no intention of slowing down when it comes to her career, revealing that she will continue to write music regardless of what she was going through. She shared that she feels it is her "duty" to sing her ups and downs and "write things that empower women in the way that I want to be empowered and feel good about."

Pearce earlier dished on her marriage and split from Ray, saying she tried everything she could to make things work until she couldn't take it anymore. But despite how their relationship ended, Pearce said she doesn't consider it to be a mistake and simply learned that sometimes love wasn't enough to save a marriage.

"I did everything that I knew how to do. It takes two people to work on something," she told People.

"When you love somebody, you trust them," she added without going into specific details.

There were speculations that their relationship went south during the quarantine. However, the new CMA winner denied this rumor, clarifying that they already had issues before the lockdown and that their decision to split was not abrupt.

"This was not a flippant decision. This was something that I really took time to make sure I was doing the right thing. It was very clear that this was not the marriage that I wanted," she explained.

Pearce was brokenhearted and embarrassed by her split from Ray and was relieved that her family and friends offered her support.

The country singer also shared that she sought counseling and therapy for the first time to help mend her broken heart and adopted a shih tzu puppy she named June after five-time Grammy winner, singer-songwriter and actress June Carter.