Kacey Musgraves Doesn’t ‘Regret Living and Loving’ as Hard as She Does After Split With Cole Schafer

Kacey Musgraves got candid about her views on relationships and love following her split from Cole Schafer.

“I don’t regret living and loving as hard as I do,” Musgraves, 35, said in an interview with The Cut published on Friday, March 1. “Whenever I’m in a relationship, I’m all f–king in. I think that hesitancy breeds hesitancy and if you go in with something with one foot, it’s going to fail”

Musgraves admitted that after her divorce from Ruston Kelly in 2020 she felt like she wanted to protect her heart, however, she doesn’t want to close herself off from love in the future.

“After divorce, it’s like on one hand I do want to self-protect, but at the same time, if your heart is feeling open, I think you have to just show up for it,” the “Deeper Well” singer explained to the outlet. “I’m still trying to figure out the balance of that.”

Kacey Musgraves and Boyfriend Cole Schafer: A Timeline of Their Relationship

Following Musgraves’ divorce from Kelly, 35, in July 2020 after three years of marriage, the singer moved on with Schafer, 27, in August 2021.

“He did not know who I was, which I loved,” Musgraves recalled of the pair’s first meeting in a crowded restaurant in a 2021 New York Times profile. “A handful of grown men come out, and they’re sweating trying to keep up with you on the sidewalk. It feels very predatory.”

Nearly two years later, Musgraves and Schafer called it quits.

“They weren’t seeing eye to eye in terms of where they are in life right now and decided to end things,” a source told Us Weekly in November 2023.

One month later, another source told Us that Schafer didn’t care for the “glitz and glamor” that came along with dating Musgraves and that their “personalities didn’t exactly gel” in the end.

Everything Kacey Musgraves Has Said About Love and Moving On After Ruston Kelly Split

According to the insider, Schafer didn’t like “attending all these events as Kacey’s plus-one” and is “an extremely sensitive, soulful guy who doesn’t share her ambitions.”

Four months after her breakup from Schafer, Musgraves announced her new album, Deeper Well, which is set to be released on March 15.

“It’s a collection of songs I hold very dear to my heart. I hope it makes a home in all of your hearts too,” the “Rainbow” singer wrote via Instagram in February, while also announcing that she was dropping the title track song and the music video that same day.

Musgraves later shared that she took inspiration for her new album from the energy in New York City’s Greenwich Village.

“I find it really ironic that I was able to tap into a more rootsy, folky, softer side in the middle of New York City,” she told The Cut. “Some of my more country stuff came out again there.”