Michelle Branch Arrested for Domestic Assault Amid Divorce From Husband Patrick Carney
Singer Michelle Branch has been arrested for domestic assault amid her divorce from her husband Patrick Carney. TMZ reports that Branch was taken into custody sometime after 2 a.m. local time Thursday morning for allegedly slapping Carney "one to two times." The outlet states that police documents out of Nashville, where the two live, indicated that Carney had no visible injuries. Branch was arrested and given a $1,000 bail. She was reportedly released early due to needing to breastfeed the six-month-old baby girl she shares with Carney.
The arrest comes in the wake of Branch accusing Carney of cheating on her, which we can speculate may have been part of the cause for their split. "To say that I am totally devastated doesn't even come close to describing how I feel for myself and for my family," Branch said in a statement announcing the end of their relationship. "The rug has been completely pulled from underneath me and now I must figure out how to move forward. With such small children, I ask for privacy and kindness." In addition to their infant, Branch and Carney also share a four-year-old son, and Branch has a 16-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.
Branch and Carney — drummer for The Black Keys — met back in 2015 at a Grammy party. They began dating shortly thereafter and moved in together in 2017. Their son — Rhys James — was born in August 2018, and the couple got married in 2019, tying the knot at the Marigny Opera House in New Orleans. They welcomed their daughter, Willie Jacquet Carney, in February.
In a post after her baby girl was born, Branch wrote, "Welcome to the world, sweet Willie girl." The singer added, "She's named after Patrick's grandmother Willie Madge and has my mother's maiden name/my middle name. We're so in love."
Sadly, Branch shared in 2020 that she suffered a miscarriage, writing in an Instagram post at the time, "Just when we were rounding third and heading home (A baseball metaphor?! I know.) 2020 was like, 'nah, I ain't done yet.'" She added, "December decided to really finish us off with a bang! No, literally. A bomb went off in downtown Nashville yesterday," referring to the shocking Christmas bombing in Nashville, Tennessee in late 2020. Branch then revealed, "And to further twist a dagger in my heart, I experienced my first miscarriage (ugh! Mother—!)."