NEED TO KNOW
Kelsea Ballerini is getting personal on her newest EP.
On Friday, Nov. 7, the country singer, 32, dropped her newest song “I Sit in Parks” after announcing a surprise EP that drops next week. In the song, Ballerini gets candid about what her life might’ve looked like if she hadn’t pursued a music career.
“Dad brought the picnic / Mom brought the sunscreen / Two kids are laughing and crying on red swings,” Ballerini sings. “We look about the same age / But we don’t have the same Saturdays.”
“Did I miss it? / By now is it / A lucid dream? Is it my fault / For chasing things a body clock / Doesn’t wait for?” she continues on the song, candidly asking if she’s run out of time to have a family.
“I did the damn tour / It’s what I wanted, what I got / I spun around and then I stopped / And wonder if I missed the mark,” Ballerini sings, later adding, “I wonder if she wants my freedom / Like I want to be a mother.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Ballerini’s new six-track EP titled Mount Pleasant will drop on Friday, Nov. 14. The musician was also nominated on Friday morning for Best Contemporary Country Album at the 2026 Grammys for her most recent album, Patterns.
Patrick Tracy
In the past, Ballerini has shared that she wasn’t always ready to become a mom. During a 2023 episode of Call Her Daddy, the country star shared that the breaking point of her nearly five-year long marriage to fellow country artist Morgan Evans was realizing that she “wasn’t ready for kids,” while Evans, now 40, was eager to become a father.
“That was something that we had talked about early on, and that was something that I was changing on,” she explained to host Alex Cooper. ”Cause he was ready. He was like, ‘I don’t want to be an old dad,’ is what he kept saying. And I was like, ‘I’m not there yet, and I can’t do that to save this and give you something that I’m not ready for.'”
Ballerini recalled visiting her doctor to look into freezing her eggs — and not telling Evans about the trip. She eventually took him to dinner and said she wanted to freeze her eggs when she turned 30, which was still a year and a half out.
“It was not a good day,” she said on the podcast. “And I think that was when I was like, there’s a fundamental difference here that has happened, that has shifted. And it’s no longer like, I don’t see this person, I miss this person, I’m alone, I’m lonely. It’s like, he wants something out of life… [and] I’m not there.”
She continued: “And whether I’ll get there or not, I don’t think it’s with this person if it is. And I think internally in hindsight, that’s where I went like, ‘I think maybe we need to rethink this, Kels.'”
Ballerini went on to say that the egg-freezing conversation confirmed to her that she and Evans were “on different pages.” She eventually filed for divorce in August 2022. Their split was finalized in November 2022.
The singer went on to date actor Chase Stokes for three years before splitting this past September. A rep for Ballerini confirmed to PEOPLE that the “Cowboys Cry Too” artist and the Outer Banks star, 33, went their separate ways after three years together.
Sources close to the couple told PEOPLE exclusively, “They’re two adults who gave it their all and tried to do everything they could to make it work, but ultimately couldn’t. It happens.”
However, Ballerini and Stokes were spotted holding hands in Croatia on Friday.
