The singer sat down with Howard Stern to perform a moving tribute to Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie.
Maren Morris is speaking out on eliminating "trauma" from her life amid her divorce from Ryan Hurd and a career rebranding. The singer sat down with Howard Stern on Wednesday for a candid and wide-ranging conversation on The Howard Stern Show.
Addressing her most recent haircut -- a slightly shortened version of Morris' signature bob style -- the star declared, "I cut all the trauma out of my hair." She went on to discuss a communal sense of struggle among herself and those closest to her over the last year, saying they had all "gone through it." Pressed by Stern on the status of her own split, Morris said that "it's ongoing."
Stern went on to ask if Morris was dating yet, to which she said, "No. I would like this to sort of wrap up. I don't have the head space for that yet. But I'm writing so much right now, that's kind of been my way of dating is just through song."
Morris explained that since she had last seen Stern in 2019, she became a first-time mother when she welcomed son Hayes at the start of the pandemic.
"I've been very public about postpartum depression which was something I dealt with in 2020 along with probably circumstantial 2020 depression too," she shared. "I think I was just starting to make very little sense to myself and to people around me."
Morris said that she struggled largely with "attaching your entire identity to what you do for a living," as live tours had been canceled indefinitely at the time. She credited therapy, Zoloft and her estranged husband with helping her emerge from the "fog" of her postpartum depression.
"He was actually the one that brought me out of that state and made me recognize that I wasn't acting like myself," Morris said of Hurd, whom she wed in 2018. "I really credit him and, like, a lot of people that were close to me for being like, 'Maren, you do not sound like yourself. You're making very little sense.'"
Morris then recounted one of the nonsensical things she believed at the time.
"'You're wanting to go, like, have Ryan -- my husband -- live elsewhere,'" she recalled being told by her loved ones. "'And you just stay with the baby because you don't want anyone around.' And I was like, 'Yeah, that doesn't make any logical sense.' And I'm glad someone told me that. I was also four months postpartum, so the idea of living alone with my son was a ridiculous thought, but it made sense to me at the time. I was not in my right mind."
Morris wound up filing for divorce from Hurd in October after five years of marriage, citing "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for the split.
"I haven't spoken about this since it all went down," she began, addressing the breakup.
"I'm still very close with my husband and we have our 3-year-old son," she shared. "He's amazing. ... I feel like having this lifelong friendship with this person, I'm interested to see what that looks like."
With a chuckle, Stern offered his best wishes for their friendship in the future and said that he had "high hopes" for them.
"We're gonna do our absolute best," Morris said. "We both love our son so much and we love each other, but yeah, it's just, sometimes you gotta know what's right."
Morris' appearance came as part of Stern's "Remembering Legends" episode. For her appearance, Morris paid tribute to the late Fleetwood Mac singer and keyboardist Christine McVie with a performance of "Songbird," which McVie wrote.
"That band has had such a deep songwriting effect on me," Morris gushed.
Earlier this month, Morris opened up to ET about her intentions heading into the new year.
"Just, not answering to anyone and not having to protect anyone's feelings but my own and put myself first," she said. "And I think that's going to be a really empowering 2024."
The new chapter in her life has also, in a way, altered her creative process. Morris said she's giving herself time when it comes to any new music -- amid her transition out of the country music industry -- as she weathers this personal chapter in her life.
"There's a lot of personal stuff right now I'm wading through, processing, writing through," said Morris, whose last album, Humble Quest, dropped in March 2022. "So, yeah, I'm giving myself the time to do that and not having to rush a very, huge personal thing through an album being delivered. So, yeah, it's going to take a little bit longer than I had hoped, but I have to trust the process."
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