Jason Isbell Denies Salacious Rumors Amidst Amanda Shires Divorce

04/08/2024 03:02 pm EDT

Jason Isbell is addressing the rumors that he cheated on his estranged wife, Amanda Shires. The country artist, 45, took to Instagram on April 3 to shut down speculation that he had stepped out on his ex and frequent collaborator during their marriage. 

"I can't believe I need to say this, but – my manager, business manager, tour manager, tour assistant and both publicists are all women," Isbell wrote in a statement shared via Instagram. "I'm very grateful for each of them. None of us have ever had any kind of romantic relationship in any way."

The "Cover Me Up" singer asked his followers not to "make up misogynistic nonsense stories" about his colleagues and post them online, noting, "It's hard enough already for anybody who isn't a straight white man in our business. And now there are folks contacting them and accusing them of 'breaking up a family.' Stop it."

Isbell filed for divorce from Shires, a singer-songwriter and violinist, in December 2023 after a decade of marriage, according to the Los Angeles Times. The former couple, who share 8-year-old daughter Mercy, wed in 2013.

The duo had spoken before about their marriage issues, speaking to the New York Times in May 2020 about how difficulties in their marriage inspired the songwriting process for their album Reunions. "At one point, I said, 'It'd be easier if somebody had cheated,'" Isbell told the publication at the time. "Then we could say, 'You did this,' or 'I did this,' and 'Somebody needs to be real sorry.' But it was more like, 'We don't know each other right now. We're not able to speak the same language.'"

Shires, 42, added that Isbell "was impossible" to work with as they were recording the album, saying, "It was like he wanted help but didn't want help." In the 2023 documentary Running With Our Eyes Closed, which chronicled the couple recording Reunions and throughout the early days of the pandemic, the couple revealed that they were close to divorce at that time.

Most recently, Isbell made his film debut in the Academy Award-nominated Killers of the Flower Moon, and Shires put her solo career on hold to form the country supergroup The Highwomen with Maren Morris, Brandi Carlile and Natalie Hemby.

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