Carly Pearce Believes the Guy in ‘I Hope You’re Happy Now’ Is Better off Without Her

When Carly Pearce wrote “I Hope You’re Happy Now” with Luke Combs, Randy Montana and Jonathan Singleton, she was getting over breaking someone else’s heart, after she broke up with her long-term boyfriend because she realized she had feelings for her current husband, Michael Ray. Pearce enlisted Lee Brice to sing on “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” with the video showing both sides of the story – the woman in love and the man who was left behind – and believes that, like in the video, the guy she left is ultimately in a better place without her.

“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 shared in a behind-the-scenes video. “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.’”

Pearce and Brice both appeared in the video, although not as the people they portray in the song.

“Because this song is so personal to me, I really love taking each music video that I’ve done, and making it exactly what the story’s about,” said Pearce. “So for this, Lee and I are not acting as the two characters in the story, but I wanted it to play a split-screen of a day in the life of these two characters. The girl is OK, the guy is not. Lee and I are actually in the bar that they end up in, and we’re playing.”

Although Pearce doesn’t have contact with the ex-boyfriend who inspired “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” she believes if she did see him, their story would play out much like the end of the video.

“The girl has a fiancé, and she ends up running into this guy,” Pearce reflected. “A lot like, we’ve all referenced the movie La La Land, at the end where you see this moment where Ryan Gosling‘s character is kind of giving her a nod of, ‘It’s OK that you’ve moved on, and I wish you well.’”

“I Hope You’re Happy Now” is already in the Top 30, which Pearce opened up about on social media.

“In just 6 weeks, [“I Hope You’re Happy Now” is officially Top 30 at country radio — faster than any other song I’ve released so far. If y’all only knew how that makes my heart feel. My hope when I decided to release my story in this song was that it would connect, no matter which side of the story you’ve been on. Feeling so excited for what’s to come. Thank you country radio & ALL OF YOU.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Jeff Kravitz