Sara Evans is by her man's side.
The country singer initially filed for divorce from her husband Jay Barker in 2021, and in 2022, he was arrested for allegedly trying to run her over with his truck. She recently revealed that she had reconciled with him and is now asking for her fans' understanding.
“To this day, I think he was backing up to see if I was in the car with anyone,” she told People of the events that led to his arrest. “To my child, it looked like something completely different. My child had never seen it in that light, and I think it was very shocking.”
As she revealed on her new podcast, “Diving in Deep with Sara Evans,” she was in a car with a friend and her child the night of her arrest. They were about to pull into the driveway when Barker got into a “verbal altercation” with her daughter, something she said “scared her.”
COUNTRY SINGER SARA EVANS CONFIRMS HER RECONCILIATION WITH HUSBAND TWO YEARS AFTER HIS ARREST FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Sara Evans doesn't believe her husband was trying to hurt her the night he was arrested for assault. (FOX)
“Then he jumped in his truck and he [was] I was kind of going backwards at a very high speed,” she said. “I knew Jay, so I didn't feel the same way as my child. My child thought he was going to wreck our car, that he was backing towards our car and that she was about to witness something horrible, or at the very least, an accident, which would have been her truck hitting my side of the road. car, where I was in the front seat. She was terrified. »
His daughter called 911 and Barker was arrested and charged with assault. He ultimately entered a best interest plea, meaning he did not admit guilt, but admitted there was enough evidence in the case to potentially convict him. The charges were reduced to a misdemeanor and he was placed on probation.
Evans said: “I would just encourage people not to just believe [it] without him ever talking about it. I never talked about it, like, 'Oh yeah, he tried to kill her with his truck.' I don't like this rhetoric because that's exactly what's happening, too much bullshit—being said without the facts to back it up. I just felt like some of it should have been more private because I never spoke to the press. I never said a word.”
Sara Evans and Jay Barker married in 2008. (Rick Diamond/Getty Images)
A few months after his arrest, Evans said he contacted her via text message and they began the reconciliation process. They agreed that he would undergo both individual therapy and couples therapy “for the rest of our lives” because they “need professional help.”
The divorce was annulled in February 2023 and he returned to the joint family home three or four months ago.
“This is my marriage. This is my situation. I'm married to a wonderful man who did imperfect things. I'm a wonderful person who is also imperfect. This was our choice to get better and heal.”
“When he came back into our lives, it was a complete change, like he almost changed his brain chemistry,” Evans' daughter said. “In the past, you could see something that would trigger him or drive him crazy, and all of a sudden he would be silent, and you could see little glances around the room. Now he's completely changed his overall energy When someone teases him, instead of getting angry, it's more of a laugh or a “You're right.” I've seen little steps like that throughout the past year, in seeing a totally different man as a father figure.”
Evans did not have children with Barker, but instead had three children with her first husband, a son named Avery and daughters Olivia and Audrey.
Sarah Evans poses with her daughters Audrey and Olivia in 2018. (Rick Diamond/Getty Images for CMT)
“It's about a 180 degree turn,” the “Born to Fly” singer said of her husband's behavior today compared to then. “He will never be perfect. I will never be perfect. But we are in love. We will do everything we can to stay together and be healthy. Now he treats me like a queen. I wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case. I want people to know that.”
She stressed that she “was serious” when she filed for divorce. “I don't want people to think I'm downplaying anything to do with toxic marriages, abuse in marriage or any kind of addiction,” she said. “I'm not minimizing any of that. I'm just saying that, for me, my choice was to stay and work hard, but also to set boundaries and ground rules.”
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She added: “This is my marriage. This is my situation. I'm married to a wonderful man who has done imperfect things. I'm a wonderful person who is also imperfect. This was our choice to get better and heal. No one should make their decisions based on me. It's very scary because, again, people are going to be angry. [But] I hope most people will give me the benefit of the doubt and give Jay the benefit of the doubt and take my word that this is the right decision for me.”
Evans married Barker, a former NFL player, in 2008, and she told People it didn't take long for things to turn toxic. Yet she didn't admit it, explaining, “Lack of attention from men was all I'd ever known. If Jay was jealous, that meant he was obsessed with me, which meant he loved me. I was so crazy into it. I love him, and I still do, that it took me forever to tell people. I was in denial. I thought, “I can change him. I can manage his behavior. I can just make sure nothing ever bothers him.”
Jay Barker was placed on probation after entering a best interest plea, changing the felony assault charge to a misdemeanor. (Christopher Polk/ACMA2012/Getty Images for ACM)
It was in 2017 that she realized she didn't “deserve” this kind of treatment, and in 2020 she “just gave up” on the relationship. They separated in April 2021 and in August she filed for divorce.
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“I just threw my hands up and said, ‘I quit,’” she recalled. “'I'm tired of this, and there's no reason for us to live this way, because we have everything. We're so lucky.' But at the same time, I was heartbroken because I felt like my hand was being forced to do this. I didn't want to do this because I love Jay. We've been married for 16 years now, and 90 percent of this marriage has been very happy.”
Yesterday, Evans released a new single, “Pride,” from his upcoming album “Unbroke.” In a press release obtained by Fox News Digital, she said: “A few years ago, I began writing this album during one of the most difficult times of my life. I was going through extreme difficulties in my marriage and during our separation, I wrote this. “. It's the rawest, most real music I've ever written. She's honest and vulnerable, like I'm talking to a friend in a private conversation. “
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The opening lyrics of “Pride,” which Evans co-wrote with two other songwriters, begin with the lines “You left a mark on my face / And you brought a dozen red flags in a vase / You thought everything would be okay, but it’s not okay.”