Michelle Branch Tweets and Deletes Cheating Accusation Against Patrick Carney

Michelle Branch, an artist who guided many of us through early heartbreak, is currently in the thick of it herself. The Spirit Room musician is splitting from her husband, The Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney, after three years of marriage.

“To say that I am totally devastated doesn’t even come close to describing how I feel for myself and for my family,” Branch, 39, told People on Thursday. “The rug has been completely pulled from underneath me and now I must figure out how to move forward.”

On Thursday morning, Branch tweeted and deleted a post accusing Carney of cheating while she was home with the couple’s six-month-old daughter, their second kid together.

About half an hour after the tweet was sent, around 2 AM, cops were called to Branch and Carney’s Nashville home to check on a possible domestic disturbance. According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Branch admitted to slapping Carney “one to two times.” Though Carney had no visible injuries, Branch was taken into custody but released early because she is still breastfeeding her baby. Her bail was set for $1,000.

On Father’s day, just two months ago, Branch celebrated Carney on her Instagram with the caption, “This guy makes our world go around and we love him so.”

The couple met at a Grammy’s party in 2015 and quickly got together. Their first child, a son, was born in 2018. Branch also has a daughter from her previous marriage to her bass player Teddy Landau, born in 2005.

This isn’t Carney’s first messy breakup. His first wife, writer Denise Grollmus, detailed the couple’s marriage, infidelity, and divorce in an incredible essay in Salon in 2011 titled, “Snapshots From a Rock ‘n’ Roll Marriage.”

Then, one night, almost a year after we split up, Patrick called me. He sounded very drunk. And that’s when he finally admitted that’d he also been unfaithful to me. Not just with the woman he’d left me for, but before that, even. One time, he said, on tour. He swore that it wasn’t sex, just a bit of friendly fellatio, because, you know, he loved me so much he could never go all the way.

Rolling Stone ran a profile on The Black Keys about a year before Grollmus’ essay where Carney and his bandmate Dan Auerbach spoke briefly about the breakup.

“Homeboy was miserable,” Auerbach says. “He was being manipulated mentally and emotionally. It was so draining.” Carney finally broke it off last July, with a phone call while his wife was in Europe. (“The ultimate pussy move,” he admits.) He says it cost him a quarter of a million dollars, plus health insurance and a monthly alimony check: “Totally worth it.”

I’m no Esther Perel, but it seems like Carney has some commitment issues he needs to work on. Hopefully, Branch can move on from this dude. Though, I think I speak for everyone when I say we wouldn’t mind if a by-product of this breakup was her album releasing next month being an absolutely heart-wrenching banger.

• Ben Affleck’s tumultuous relationship with the paps continues. Is this the price he pays to be with J.Lo? [Page Six]
• If I’m a flatworm, you’re a flatworm. Oscar Isaac describes himself and Jessica Chastain as….flatworms. [The Cut]
• Kathy Hilton is trying to backtrack her racist and fatphobic “confusion” that Lizzo was Precious by saying her “vision is awful.” [Page Six]
• Legal stan Lin-Manual Miranda has made clear that whoever tells his story is going to meet the full force of the dramaturge’s law. [Twitter]

This post has been updated to include breaking news about Branch’s arrest and note her upcoming album releasing next month.