Michelle Branch was the guest on an upcoming episode of Tamron Hall Show. During her appearance, she performed a new song and sat down for an in-depth interview about her since-dropped domestic assault charges for slapping her husband Patrick Carney of the Black Keys, her upcoming album The Trouble With Fever, and motherhood. The full episode airs on Thursday (September 15), but a teaser clip shows Branch confirming that she slapped Carney before their fallout and divorce proceedings became public. 

“I don’t condone violence,” Branch told Hall. “What went down was so unfortunate. It was the worst night of my life. Then to have that out in the world as I’m getting ready to put out a record has been a lot, but all I can do is be honest about what I’m going through and what’s going on.” Branch then explained that she and Carney have since started therapy and it’s “helped us immensely.” She elaborated further:

Here I am. I’m only seven months postpartum from having a baby. Every parent in the audience knows this: sleep stress, life stress, marriage stress, work stress. And also we’d been out at a birthday party that night and 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. It was one of those things that I was like, “Is this really happening? Did this really happen? Oh, I probably shouldn’t have tweeted that. Oh, I definitely shouldn’t have let my anger get the best of me.” It’s unfortunate that it took this horrible, traumatic event [for] my husband and I realize how we were going was unsustainable. Maybe this will give us the tools to have a stronger marriage than we’ve ever had. So we’re rolling up our sleeves and doing the work, which never sounds like fun but we’re doing it.

Branch and Carney married in April 2019. They have two children together, one of whom in seven months old. On August 11, Branch said that she had separated from Carney and in a since-deleted tweet accused him of cheating on her. “To say that I am totally devastated doesn’t even come close to describing how I feel for myself and for my family,” she wrote. “The rug has been completely pulled from underneath me and now I must figure out how to move forward.” She then filed for divorce on August 15.

It was later reported that Branch was arrested and booked for domestic assault earlier on August 11 after slapping Carney “one to two times.” The case was dropped later that month “at the request of the state.” On September 13, the couple agreed to suspend their divorce proceedings for at least six months and attend counseling services.