‘I slapped my husband’: Michelle Branch addresses domestic assault allegations
Singer opened up about the current state of her relationship, saying that her and her husband have ‘started therapy’
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Your support makes all the difference.Michelle Branch has addressed her marital troubles with Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, admitting that she “slapped” him.
In early August, Branch was arrested by Nashville police on domestic assault charges for allegedly slapping her husband. The charges were dismissed soon after.
Now, in a new appearance on Tamron Hall, the singer – whose new album The Trouble with Fever is released on Friday (16 September) – has spoken out about the incident and the current state of her relationship.
“My husband and I have started therapy recently, and I wish that we had started it six months ago,” Branch said. “It’s made such a huge difference in such a short amount of time. It’s helped us immensely.”
Host Tamron Hall further questioned the singer about the police report, which included details of an “altercation” and assault allegations.
“They are not allegations,” the Grammy-winner responded, laughingly. “I don’t condone violence. I slapped my husband, not the finest moment of my life.”
Hall then asked Branch what she’s learned since starting therapy.
“Here I am, seven months post-partum from having a baby,” Branch said. “Sleep stress, life stress, marriage stress, work stress.”
The couple were married in 2019 and share two children, Willie Jacquet Carney, seven months, and Owen Isabelle Landau, 17, from Branch’s previous marriage to Teddy Landau.
“And also we’d been out at a birthday party that night. I’d had a few drinks. All the blocks were stacked in a way that I didn’t have time to think about what I was doing,” she explained.
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“And you’re realising in real-time like, ‘Oh, I probably shouldn’t have tweeted that. Oh, I definitely shoudn’t have let my anger get the best of me.’”
The evening of the arrest, in a since-deleted social media post, Branch claimed that Carney had committed adultary while she was “at home with our six-month-old baby”.
“How we were going was unsustainable, so maybe this will give us the tools to have a stronger marriage than we’ve ever had,” Branch added.
“We’re rolling up our sleeves and doing the work.”
Tamron Hall airs weekdays on ABC.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, you can call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge, on 0808 2000 247, or visit their website here.