Sara Evans opened up on her decision to reconcile with her husband Jay Barker after he was arrested in 2022 for allegedly attempting to hit her with a truck.
On the premiere episode of "Diving in Deep with Sara Evans", she recalled being "really scared" because her daughter was with her.
"He jumped in his truck, and he [was] sort of backing up at a very high speed. I knew Jay, so I didn’t feel the same way that my child felt," she explained.
"My child thought he was gonna plow our car down, that he was backing up towards our car, and that she was about to watch something horrific, or at the very least, an accident," the singer continued. "Which would have been his truck hitting my side of the car, where I was in the front seat. She was terrified."
Evans said their daughter immediately called 911 and police arrived after Barker has already left in his truck.
"I just felt so ashamed and so stupid, and my child was so mad," she continued. "She was standing there thinking, ‘He’s about to hit my mom with a truck.’ I don’t know how close he got honestly, and I don’t know what it looks like to her. But I heard her scream so loud."
Evans added that she "really did not think" his intention was to hit their car, but to "back up as fast as he could" and their child interpreted that as him attempting to slam into them.
This was only one is a series of allegedly abusive incidents that took place throughout their marriage and the country star admitted it took her filing for divorce "for him to realize, ‘Oh s---, she’s serious. This is it.’"
"Some people have marriage problems that are like, they fight all the time. We didn’t fight all the time. He fought me," she revealed. "When he was in his low spots, he fought against me, he pushed me away, pushed my love away. So every situation is different. I would never encourage anybody to stay in a dangerous situation."
However, 53-year-old eventually gave Barker another chance several months later when they slowly began texting each other again.
"We’re so happy now," she confessed. "But I don’t want anyone to think that I'm advocating staying in a relationship where you are ever, in your gut, you know that you need to exit the situation. Every woman needs to follow her gut on that and do what is best for her. I believe and I hope that I’ve done that."
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org.