Country singer Sara Evans is back together with her husband — despite that assault charge!
You may recall Jay Barker was arrested for felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon back in 2022. At the time, he allegedly attempted to slam his car into the vehicle his wife (and possibly his daughter??) was riding in. OMG! But two years after the domestic violence incident, Sara and Jay have decided to give their relationship another shot!
How did they come to this decision? Here’s the rundown… In an interview with People, the musician shared that she “gave up” on her marriage with the former football player in the summer of 2020 after realizing just how toxic their relationship had become. Um, car crash levels? Yeah, that’s pretty toxic. But she means his “accusatory” and “jealous” behavior, which she claimed was often “agitated” by alcohol. By August 2021, she filed for divorce after 16 years of marriage, citing inappropriate marital conduct.
Related: Christine Quinn ‘Planning’ Divorce After Husband Allegedly Injured Their Son
Sara recalled that the pair went on to live separate lives, with Jay moving to his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. While they attempted to stay in touch, their conversations often ended up in an argument. Everything came to a head, though, on January 17, 2022, when he got arrested for allegedly trying to drive his car into the vehicle she was in. She and another witness both told police they believed Jay was intentionally trying to back his car into theirs. Remember that. Because if you ask the Pink artist now, she says she doesn’t believe that was his intention at all!
She explained on her new podcast Diving in Deep with Sara Evans she thinks her daughter blew the whole thing out of proportion. She had been the one to call the police after witnessing her parents’ verbal altercation before the incident. (So was the daughter the other passenger? The other witness who talked to police? Is that why she wasn’t named??) Sara continued:
“To this day, I think that he was backing up to see if I was in the car with somebody. To my child, it looked like something different altogether. My child had never seen him in that light, and I think that was very shocking.”
It must have been terrifying, that’s for sure! But Sara apparently got over it. A few months later, she received a text from Jay randomly. From there, they began talking again and opened up the door to a reconciliation. However, the performer understandably had some major rules for her hubby! Starting with the requirement he go to therapy both on his own and with her. In fact, the songstress said they will be in therapy “for the rest of our lives,” as she knows they “need professional help” for their issues. Then he needed to earn back the trust of their children…
Jay obviously agreed to those terms. Eventually, the duo reached a point where they wanted to rekindle their relationship. He moved back into the family home, and the divorce was dismissed in February 2023. Of course, plenty of people will have a lot to say about Sara getting back together with the NFL star — especially after the domestic violence incident. But she hopes everyone will give them both the “benefit of the doubt” before judging them. She told People:
“This is my marriage. It’s my situation. I’m married to a wonderful man who did imperfect things. I’m a great person who is also imperfect. That was our choice to get better and heal. No one should make their decisions based on me. This is very scary because, again, people are going to be mad. [But] I hope that most people will give me the benefit of the doubt and give Jay the benefit of the doubt and just take me at my word that this is the right decision for me.”
Well. All we can say is we truly hope Jay has changed over the past two years. Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments!
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available. Consider calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233, or text START to 88788, or go to https://www.thehotline.org/.
[Image via MEGA/WENN, Judy Eddy/WENN]
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