Carly Pearce Opens up About Staying Too Long In the Relationship That Led to ‘I Hope You’re Happy Now’

We all know by now that Carly Pearce‘s current single, “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” was written as a message to her ex-boyfriend, after leaving him to start dating Michael Ray. But now Pearce is opening up about how long she stayed in that relationship after knowing it wasn’t right, revealing it took her a long, long time to finally tell him goodbye.

“Sometimes you get complacent in a relationship where you get comfortable, and you’re not really in love with this person, you’re just in love with the idea of being comfortable and with someone,” Pearce told ABC Audio. “And honestly, that’s where I was. I was kind of on the back half of realizing –– over the course of probably a year staying with this person and being quiet and kind of keeping it to myself –– that I wasn’t happy anymore.”

Luke Combs co-wrote “I Hope You’re Happy Now” with Pearce (along with Randy Montana and Jonathan Singleton), with Pearce crediting Combs for the idea of making the song a conversation between the one leaving and the one left behind.

“Whichever side you’re on, you take that phrase differently,” Pearce said of “I Hope You’re Happy Now. “”And honestly –– in the way that all of, I feel like, my best songs have happened –– it just fell out of my mouth.”

Pearce wishes nothing but the best for her former flame, which is why she made “I Hope You’re Happy Now” an apology of sorts to him for the hurt she put him through.

“What makes it so beautiful is this is my apology to this person,” Pearce previously said. “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.”

Pearce sings “I Hope You’re Happy Now” with Lee Brice. The song, from her recently-released self-titled sophomore album, is currently in the Top 15.

Photo Credit: Getty / Jim Spellman