Kelsea Ballerini’s Mom, Carla Denham, Says Her ‘Pain’ in ‘Rolling Up the Welcome Mat’ Music Videos Was ‘Real Pain’ After Divorce

usmagazine.com:

Protector mode! Kelsea Ballerini’s mom, Carla Denham, got real about her daughter’s heartbreak — and how hard it was to watch — following her split from Morgan Evans.When Ballerini, 29, separated from Evans, 37, in summer 2022, her mom had a front row seat.

When their divorce was finalized in November 2022 — and the country songstress released her six-track EP Rolling Up the Welcome Mat about her breakup in February — Denham once again was there to listen and guide her daughter.“As she was sending me those songs when she would write them … I would just bawl,” the musician’s mom revealed during a Monday, February 27, appearance on the “Got It From My Momma” podcast. “The songs were hard enough to listen to, but I also know that it’s cathartic for her.

That’s her way of processing hurt and pain. It’s to go write it — then it’s out of her.”Denham revealed that the “Peter Pan” singer’s choice to also include six music videos that correlate to her six new songs made her even more nervous.“I was thinking, ‘God, how are you gonna do that?’ I couldn’t do that — there’s no way,” she said. “If she had hired an actress to do that, it still would’ve hurt for me to watch it, but to watch her acting out what she really felt and experienced was just … it’s that blend between I’m in total awe, when she showed me the piece, and I just wanted to take her and put her in a plastic bubble and let’s just go away somewhere away from the world.”Denham noted that the emotions Ballerini was able to portray in the videos, which are all pegged to her and Evans’ ups and downs before and after their divorce, was authentically her daughter.“I watched that film and the pain on her face … I’ve seen that pain.