Kelsea Ballerini Gets Honest & Open About Divorce with New EP & Short Film

Kelsea Ballerini is opening up about her relationship and divorce from Morgan Evans with her brand new EP and short film Rolling Up the Welcome Mat.

The 29-year-old country music star debuted both accompanying projects on Valentine’s Day on Tuesday (February 14).

“here’s my healing journey. here’s my heart. here’s my truth. i’ve never been this open, i’ve never been this bold, and i’ve never been this proud of my art. so with love and respect, i’m rolling up the welcome mat. six song story and short film out now. happy valentine’s day. ❤️‍🩹,” she shared on Instagram.

Watch the short film and listen to the EP inside…

Kelsea wrote most of the songs by herself, starting with just her and her guitar. She then worked with frequent collaborator Alysa Vanderheym, co-producing and co-writing three of the tracks.

“I wasn’t worried about anything other than presenting the songs as honestly as possible,” she shared. “Most of them started with me and my guitar.”

“I was writing by myself for most of the project, and it was nice to trust myself again,” Kelsea continued. “The only way I’ve been able to handle my life since I was 12 was to write about it. Ironically, I started writing music because my parents got divorced; that was my therapy. Rolling Up The Welcome Mat was how I processed everything. It’s the way I got my feelings out of my body and heart and put them to music, which is the purest way I could’ve handled it.”

Kelsea also wrote and directed the short film, alongside co-director Patrick Tracy. Uros Markovic stars as the male lead.

Kelsea and Morgan were together for several years. They got engaged in 2016 and married in 2017. She then announced they were divorcing in the summer of 2022, before it finalized in November of that year.

Since then, Kelsea has been linked to Outer Banks star Chase Stokes.