After Her Divorce, Alexandra Kay Found Healing — and Her Next Album (Exclusive)

Alexandra Kay has been through an all-out transformation.

“‘Transform’ is a weird word because I don’t want anybody to think I’ve changed,” Kay, 34, tells PEOPLE while on the road with Brad Paisley over the summer. “I’ve just become a better version of myself since leaving my toxic relationship.”

It’s a version of herself that Kay admits she is still getting to know following her divorce from Indiana Touchette, whom she married back in 2021. “It was truly the worst pain,” admits Kay of the emotional aftermath of her divorce. “I wouldn’t wish that sort of pain on my worst enemy. He was all I’d ever known, and then suddenly, I was dealing with being alone for the first time. It was a terrifying feeling.”

But now, she says she’s thriving. And it’s this new life and new attitude bolstered by the love of Kay’s current boyfriend Rocko Beall that will soon be heard over the entirety of her sophomore album Second Wind, set for release Oct. 24.

“When we started writing last year, I was really starting to settle into my relationship,” says Kay, who co-wrote all but two tracks on the upcoming album. “Because at first, dating someone else felt very strange, having been with the same person for 11 years. I did not dive in immediately. I was very much, ‘toes in the water, let’s test the temperature’ a bit. I was starting to trust someone with my heart again.”

But once she began to ease up on the reins of love, the BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville artist says she found herself opening up not only personally, but creatively. “The second half of the record is when you really start to feel that,” says Kay. “But at the beginning half of the record, you can feel as if I am closed off still.”

In fact, Kay admits that the album cut “Better Off” could have easily lived on her debut album All I’ve Ever Known. “I sort of eased the listener into the new album with ‘Better Off,'” Kay remembers of the first few songs of the album, which includes the single-worthy “Straight for the Heart.” “You can still feel that angst and that anger until about song five or six, and then you switch to the moment where I find my worth again.”

It’s this vulnerability concerning the intersection of her personal and professional life that has helped Kay establish such a close relationship with her fans, who have seemed to take each and every step with her along the way. “Sometimes, we just cry in each other’s arms,” she explains of the devoted fandom that includes over 8.7 million social media followers. “We go from being an artist and a fan to just two humans who have felt the same thing.”

And while the shared experience of going through a divorce will never not be a part of the story between Kay and her fans, so too will the chance to find love again. And Kay has done just that — as she now finds herself in the arms of her very own guitarist. 

“He just meets me with just kindness,” concludes Kay, who headed off with her bandmates on her Second Wind: The Tour two weeks ago. “As soon as I trusted Rocko, he never gave me any reason to feel like I had to protect myself. And so, I became so feminine and carefree and happy, and I just felt so protected.”

Today, Kay feels like a new person, partly thanks to Beall.

“He’s the most loving, caring, talented, beautiful human being I’ve ever met,” raves Kay. “I’m just so excited that the world just gets to see him for who he is in this album — and also every night on stage.”