During her insightful conversation with Kelleigh Bannen for Apple Music, Maren Morris has reflected on working with her ex-husband, Ryan Hurd, for the first time since their divorce.

Morris recorded a song she and Hurd had co-written with Caitlyn Smith, ‘We Can't Be Friends’, as part of her repackaged HERO: A Second Wind project. Morris, who filed for divorce from Hurd in October 2023, jokes about how the title felt somewhat ironic.

Morris explains to Bannen, “I feel fortunate that he and I are able to have that bond through this, and obviously like, our son, and we spend time together with our son. But this is the first time, I guess, we've worked together musically since we divorced”.

The ‘Bones’ singer-songwriter goes on, “But I think it was kind of interesting timing, just because some time has passed, some peace has been found, and a friendship and co-parentship - if that's a word - has bloomed. And yeah, it's nice to kind of go back to zero with the music part. That's what drew us together to begin with”.

Morris underlines that, regardless of how their personal relationship is, she will always have tremendous respect for Hurd's craft, “I still, you know, think the world of him and his art and his talent as a writer. So yeah, it's cool to share this. And I think people are proud of us in some way, like, ‘Damn, couldn't be me’. But I'm proud of us”.

Elsewhere during the interview, the ‘My Church’ hitmaker amusingly jokes about the song-choice, "What a hilarious song for us to be revisiting... “This is why we can't be friends”, and it's, like, this hook-up song. I just love the song, and I always have. It was so fun the day we that wrote it with Caitlyn, and I was like, ‘I don't want to let it go. I want to give it some love and let people hear it — like, a real version of it.'”

Morris expands, “[Hurd] sang backgrounds on it, and so did Caitlyn. It's almost like we just got to time warp, and obviously so much has changed, yes. We're co-parents now, and we're in a good place, but it is...of course, these are emotional songs still. We're still people. It's the music business, but these are personal things”.

Morris adds, “Not just someone you've been married to or have a child with. It's like, this business is personal. When you write songs, you are airing your heart out and opening up wounds and trusting people, so it feels personal...That respect for each other as songwriters, that has never wavered...Was it weird to be like, ‘That harmony sounds great on this particular line about a one night stand'? Yeah, I'm not an idiot. I'm definitely aware of the weirdness of the event, but I think we've gotten to the point now, [where] I would hope we can laugh stuff off and not expire things that were good, like these songs. I think that we're above that”.

Like any fan, we're primarily just glad to Morris and Hurd are in a good place. And if we as listeners get to benefit in the form of great new music, well, then that's an extra bonus.