ABC/Image Group LAThere’s no denying it — in country music, 2015 was the year of the break-up. From Blake and Miranda to Reba and Narvel, the summer brought high-profile splits that practically no one saw coming.
The romance that started when Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert sang “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma” on a CMT special ended in July, with an Oklahoma divorce that was finalized before most suspected the two had separated.
“This is not the future we envisioned. And it is with heavy hearts that we move forward separately,” the two said in a joint statement. “We are real people, with real lives, with real families, friends and colleagues. Therefore, we kindly ask for privacy and compassion concerning this very personal matter.”
Since the two had no children and a prenuptial agreement, the divorce was official in a matter of days. Blake filed on July 6 in Pottawamie County, Oklahoma, and the process was complete on the 20th. Blake and Miranda wasted no time showing their fans they were still friendly, though, tweeting each other shortly afterwards to drum up support for mutual friend Ashley Monroe’s just-released album, The Blade.
Rumors of infidelity ran so rampant, Chris Young even took to Twitter to deny he was involved in the break-up. To this day, neither Blake nor Miranda has revealed the reason for their split.
By November’s CMA Awards, most of the attention was focused on whether host Brad Paisley would take aim at the now-defunct couple, but Brad’s barbs weren’t the biggest news to come out of Blake and Miranda’s most high-profile appearance since their divorce. Shortly before the show started, reps confirmed Blake’s relationship with his The Voice co-star, pop singer Gwen Stefani.
Miranda subsequently followed up with her most revealing comments about what she’s going through, in her cover story for the most recent issue of Cosmopolitan. “We were together for 10 years, married for four, were very quickly divorced, and are friends,” she told the magazine. “I’m still processing everything and figuring out where to go and what happened.”
Miranda goes on to admit that life since the split has had its rough patches. “I don’t necessarily want to know that I have really bad, long, lonely nights ahead of me, but I have had some, and I still have a bunch ahead of me. Some of that might mean nights on my porch crying, drinking whiskey, and going, ‘Man this sucks right now.’”
While Blake and Miranda may have endured the most-talked-about break-up of the year, theirs isn’t the only one. On August 3, we learned Reba and longtime manager Narvel Blackstock were calling it quits. However, they’ve kept even closer ties, maintaining their professional relationship and continuing to be seen together in business settings. Their divorce became final October 28, after a marriage that lasted 26 years and brought them one son, 25-year-old Shelby.
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