Paramore‘s Hayley Williams and New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert have called it quits after just over a year of marriage. The couple announced on Saturday via social media.
Hayley Williams recently opened up about dealing with depression and taking a break from Paramore to take care of her mental health.
Marriage is not for the faint of the heart
After 16 months of marriage, Paramore singer Hayley Williams and New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert are separating.
The couple made the announcement on July 1 posting a statement on social media that read,
“We want to publicly state — plainly, and only this time — that we are splitting up. We also feel it’s important to state that we are going to be OK and in fact, we remain close friends who are good in each other’s eyes.”
The two had been together for 10 years and got married on Feb. 20, 2016, at the Franklin Theater in Nashville.
“We’ve grown up together and we’ve been beside each other through a lot of good and a lot of challenges. There is a challenge to trying to understand your own heart in the context of a relationship… and there is goodness in considering another heart, even in spite of your own,” the statement noted.
The couple also commented on the difficulty in a public announcement and the risk that it “ends up looking… like some publicity crap.”
Nashville wedding
Williams and Gilbert first began dating back in 2008, they got engaged to one another in December 2014.
The two rockers wed in a private ceremony at the legendary Franklin Theater in Nashville on Saturday, February 20.
The duo had previously applied for their marriage license in Tennessee back in January, indicating that the nuptials weren’t far off.
The couple held a private ceremony to celebrate their wedding and exchanged vows in front of about 50 people inside the theater.
They were also photographed dancing indoors, kissing and looking very much in love.
Williams wore a white chiffon Vera Wang wedding dress, paired with Doc Marten Jadon boots, while her beau sported an all-black suit and a tartan Ben Sherman shirt.
The two were also photographed tasting their wedding cake, which was made up of three tiers of 100 doughnuts bearing quotes such as “I like your butt,” made by Five Daughters Bakery.
It also featured a topper made up of Super 7 Funko Reaction Figures—Leeloo from ‘The Fifth Element’ and Sloth from ‘The Goonies.’
Mental health and ‘After Laughter’
Hayley Williams recently opened up about mental health, particularly her struggles with depression. In a new interview with Fader, the singer divulged that she even took a break from the music group in 2015 in order to focus on her recovery.
“For the first time in my life, there wasn’t a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel,” Hayley said of her mental and emotional state at the time.
“I thought, ‘I just wish everything would stop.’ It wasn’t in the sense of, I’m going to take my life. It was just hopelessness. Like, ‘What’s the point?’ I don’t think I understood how dangerous hopelessness is. Everything hurts.”
Hayley explained that she became preoccupied with death, but luckily she found a therapist with whom she was able to discuss her thought patterns.
It was that summer that she decided to take a private break from Paramore, admitting that she felt like she had nothing left to sing.
“I just was done,” Hayley explained. “I thought, ‘There’s gotta be something else that I’m good at in my life. Maybe it’s time for me to go find that.'”
Things turn around soon
But things took a turn for the better when Taylor York reached out to Hayley with ideas for new songs.
The spark of creativity was like a life raft, and she was able to find her way back to her music through simple collaboration with Taylor.
He later explained to Fader: “I told her she didn’t have to do stuff. But I just kept writing, and then there was this time that she got it again.”
Incidentally, both Hayley and Taylor contemplated quitting the band altogether, as he too struggled with depression.
According to her interview, Hayley views her music as what has helped keep her alive and bring her back to a better place.
Her story is definitely an inspiration for others. We know that her fans are so happy that she’s healthy today and that Paramore came back with new music.
The band released on April 19 the single ‘Hard Times,’ which became the first single of their new studio album ‘After Laughter,’ which hit the shelves on May 12.
The band will take on a US tour in support of ‘After Laughter’ during the summer, starting on July 28 in Minnesota before heading to Europe for the fall.
Source: Rare