Staci Nelson found herself at the center of some serious drama last week when it was reported that Miranda Lambert is dating Turnpike Troubadours musician Evan Felker, who happens to be Nelson’s estranged husband.
Felker filed for divorce from Nelson in February, according to E! News, with Nelson doing the same later that month. A source told Us Weekly that things just “happened” between the pair while Lambert was still technically with East.
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Turnpike Troubadours opened for Lambert’s Livin’ Like Hippies during multiple dates in February, and the band will also open for Lambert and Little Big Town on select dates during the group’s joint Bandwagon Tour, which begins in July.
Back in March, Nelson shared an Instagram post that was seemingly innocuous at the time, though it now seems to take on a possible new meaning in the wake of the news.
On March 26, Nelson used the platform to post an image that read, “Canceling plans is ok. Staying home to cook is ok. Disappearing for a bit to get your life together is ok. Resurfacing in a foreign country with a new name 10 years later is ok. It’s called self-care.”
Nelson captioned the image with the hashtags #mood, #itsokay and #selfcare, which could mean any number of things, though commenters seemed to interpret Nelson as talking about the state of her relationship.
Plenty of people offered her well wishes and supportive message, with one comment reading, “Karma is on your side girl! Keep your head up.”
Another person wrote, “You deserve better. Stay strong and continue your self-care!”
“You take care of yourself,” added a third. “You deserve it. You’re awesome.”
Lambert has apparently been using Instagram to hint at the reported relationship as well, with the singer sharing a photo from a writing session in March featuring a laptop, graphing paper and two cans of beer, one of which was Modelo.
A source told PEOPLE that Felker has been known to write with that type of paper and that his drink of choice is Modelo beer.
The insider added that Felker blindsided Nelson with his divorce request, which was reportedly filed just 15 days after he met Lambert in person for the first time. The source said the pair began communicating via text message in January.
“They had never met and she had started texting him about looking forward to playing together and getting to know each other and maybe they could write because she really liked his writing sort of thing,” the insider said. “It started very much about work. He was completely thrilled. By the time he was leaving for tour, it had become a lot flirtier.”
Photo Credit: Instagram / @stacifelker
