Maren Morris Reveals Her Dating Rule After Divorce & Says Future Partner Needs to 'Have Your S--- Together' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Maren Morris.Photo:ashley osborn

ashley osborn

Maren Morrisis moving on.

The Grammy winner, 34,finalized her divorcefrom ex-husbandRyan Hurd, 37, in January after nearly six years of marriage. And while she’s slowly beginning to date again, she doesn’t feel any pressure.

In this week’s issue of PEOPLE, Morris opens up about what she learned about herself — and how she came out stronger — through of the public split.

“I think pouring myself into another person is probably not a healthy way of going about things. I think it shifts the expectations and power and entitlement a lot," she tells PEOPLE. “I just have to put 100 percent into myself, and you truly have to be a spectacularly impressive individual to add something to my life because — and I don’t mean to sound full of myself — but the life that I’ve built, I am really, really happy with.”

Morris — who rose to fame with her soulful breakout country hit “My Church” in 2016 — chronicles the difficult year she faced onher new EPIntermission.

“I don’t hide any part of myself. I feel like I can’t really do that because I’m a public figure, semi-public, so everything’s on the table, but I also have to protect my heart,” she says. “I think there’s less pressure to make anything spark or happen, it’s just like I’m enjoying dating for the first time. Nothing crazy has happened yet, it’s just mostly been like OK, I can still do this, I guess, and meet a stranger and connect through conversation. That’s tougher than you’d think.”

Maren Morris performing on May 29, 2024 in San Francisco.Steve Jennings/Getty

Steve Jennings/Getty

And while she says she isn’t rushing into anything serious, she’s enjoying this new time in her life.

“I am excited. This part of myself is the most confident and just not taking herself too seriously, so it is the perfect moment to be dating,” Morris adds. “My rules are just you have to be really spectacular to push me over.”

Now on her genre-blurring, deeply personalIntermissionrecord, Morris finds strength in vulnerability as she makes sense of her divorce and what has followed.

“This feels like an amazing journey of discovery,” she says, “and also the heartbreak of the death of a relationship and what fun and joy you find in the aftermath of a trauma or a tragedy like that.”

Morris, who’s currently on herRSVP Redux tourwith son Hayes in tow, credits her close-knit group of friends with getting her through some dark days post-split.

“My friends definitely have pulled me through the worst of it. Now I just feel like these are the people that whether I’m in a relationship with someone or not, these are the people that are my family,” she says. “I went on a trip a couple of months ago to Mexico with some girlfriends, and a few of us have been through divorce or co-parenting and so we were all just bonding over that, and it was just like: Holy s—, this is what we’re supposed to be here for. It’s not romantic relationships, it’s our relationships with women and friendships that’s going to get us through the years.”

For more on Maren Morris, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.

source: people.com