A complicated breakup. Michelle Branch and Patrick Carney called it quits in August 2022 after three years of marriage — and their split got off to a rocky start.
The “Everywhere” singer announced the news in a statement, telling Us Weekly: “To say that I am totally devastated doesn’t even come close to describing how I feel for myself and for my family. The rug has been completely pulled from underneath me and now I must figure out how to move forward. With such small children, I ask for privacy and kindness.”
Hours before announcing the split, however, Branch was arrested for domestic assault and taken into custody in the couple’s hometown of Nashville. The “Goodbye to You” songstress was later released on $1,000 bail, and her next court date was scheduled for November 2022.
The Arizona native also posted a since-deleted tweet accusing the Black Keys drummer of cheating on her while she was at home with their youngest child, daughter Willa, who was born in February 2022. The duo also share son Rhys, who arrived in August 2018. (Branch also shares daughter Owen, born in August 2005, with ex-husband Teddy Landau.)
Carney did not publicly react to his partner’s claims about the alleged affair, and a representative for the musician did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Audio Eagle Studio founder and the Grammy winner met in 2015 while Carney was producing Branch’s album Hopeless Romantic and started dating shortly thereafter. “Pat has said, ‘I remember seeing you on MTV in the early 2000s and thinking you were really cute,’” Branch recalled to Billboard in March 2017. “It’s like, why couldn’t we have just met each other in our twenties? We would have saved so much heartache!”
Carney proposed to the “All You Wanted” singer on her birthday in 2017, and the duo tied the knot two years later in a ceremony held at the Marigny Opera House in New Orleans. “Favorite moment of 2019,” Branch wrote via Instagram at the time alongside a photo from the big day. “Hands down✨❤️.”
One year later, the “Leave the Pieces” musician revealed that she suffered a pregnancy loss. “Just when we were rounding third and heading home (A baseball metaphor?! I know.) 2020 was like, ‘nah, I ain’t done yet,’” she wrote via Instagram in December 2020. “December decided to really finish us off with a bang! No, literally. A bomb went off in downtown Nashville yesterday. And to further twist a dagger in my heart, I experienced my first miscarriage (ugh! Motherf–ker!).”
Branch and the Rentals artist welcomed daughter Willa just over one year later.
Keep scrolling for more details on Branch and Carney’s split.