Carly Pearce Says ‘I Hope You’re Happy Now’ Is an Apology to Her Ex

She might be happily married now, but Carly Pearce went through a lot of conflict to get to her relationship with her husband, Michael Ray. Pearce reflects on some of that pain in her current single, “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” which is her apology to the man she was dating, and subsequently broke up with, when she started having strong feelings for Ray.

“What makes it so beautiful is this is my apology to this person,” Pearce told her record label. “I actually was pretty emotional at first when I saw the artwork of the heart and listening to the song because I genuinely didn’t mean to hurt this person and I genuinely hope the best for them and I genuinely hope that they’re happy now. So I will never exploit their name or poke fun at them in the way that I did the guy that hurt me.

“But this is a genuine feeling that I think he probably knew would eventually come out in some way in my music, because that’s what we do as songwriters,” she added. “And I feel like what I went through so many people go through and what Lee [Brice] is singing about so many people got through.”

The Kentucky native previously opened up about the relationship, in a video discussing the song, acknowledging that she didn’t write “I Hope You’re Happy Now” because she has feelings for her former flame.

“I’m married, and I don’t want anyone to think that I have this person still lingering in my past or looming, because this is my story,” Pearce explained. “But I also feel like this person is in a good place too, and I wanted people to kind of, the pay off of that to be, he’s finally seeing his ex-girlfriend for the first time, and is able to kind of look her in the face and say, ‘It’s okay.’”

“I Hope You’re Happy Now” has been the fastest rising single of Pearce’s career. It is currently in the Top 20, and still climbing. Download or stream the song at CarlyPearce.com.

Photo Credit: Getty / Jim Spellman