The reunion didn’t last long and nearly a month later, PEOPLE confirmed the two had parted ways again after the reality star came back from filming another reality show.
Ashlyn Harris spoke candidly about her divorce from Ali Krieger, revealing that she suggested opening their marriage as a final attempt to save the relationship.
On the Monday, Nov. 25 episode of the Naked Sports podcast, Harris, 39, detailed what led to the former soccer stars' divorce in Oct. 2023 after nearly four years of marriage, calling the split the "hardest thing" she's ever had to do.
Harris — who shares Sloane, 3, and Ocean, 2, with Krieger, 40 — said she became "very, very good at disassociating" toward the end of their marriage. "And that's what my therapist knew right away — it was my ability to sit and suffer...my ability to serve other people before my own wants and needs, which I genuinely think probably kept me in that marriage for as long as it did," she said.
The former goalkeeper claimed she made several attempts to save the relationship — including suggesting they open their marriage. "I started trying all these things, like, let's do an open marriage."
Ashlyn Harris at the Human Rights Campaign's 2024 Los Angeles Dinner held at the Fairmont Century Plaza on March 23, 2024 in Los Angeles, California; Honoree Ali Krieger attends the 2024 Stonewall Vision Awards at The Ziegfeld Ballroom on June 13, 2024 in New York City.
Ashlyn Harris at the Human Rights Campaign's 2024 Los Angeles Dinner held at the Fairmont Century Plaza on March 23, 2024 in Los Angeles, California; Honoree Ali Krieger attends the 2024 Stonewall Vision Awards at The Ziegfeld Ballroom on June 13, 2024 in New York City. Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty; Mark Sagliocco/Getty
But Harris said she quickly realized that the terms of an open relationship weren't even what she really wanted for her marriage. "I'm like, that's just not even me, dude."
That was like, my last attempt of, you know, if I'm not getting what I want and we want to keep this together, Harris explained.
She went on to suggest that her relationship with Krieger — whom she began dating while they were teammates for the NWSL's N.Y. Gotham — struggled due to a lack of intimacy and lacking common interests after soccer. "I think she loved the game so much and all she knew was how to sacrifice her life for the game," Harris said on the podcast.
Harris said she felt "so embarrassed" and "so much shame" because of the lack of intimacy in her marriage. "I didn't know how to tell people that, like, oh, my wife doesn't want to touch me," she shared.
When asked if her ex-wife would disagree with her assessment of what led to their divorce, Harris said, "No. She can't say that because we weren't intimate the entire part of our marriage. So, I mean, the facts are just the facts."
Harris claims that she noticed their relationship troubles affecting their children, and she "had to do the hard thing" in ending the marriage. "I became a stranger, not only within myself, but within my relationship, and then the worst thing that you can do is start pushing that on your young children."
I didn't wanna do that to my kids. I don't want them I don't wanna project my shame and insecurity and my marriage on them because I wasn't getting what I needed out of it.
Harris also opened up about the way her divorce played out in the public eye, especially after rumors began to swirl of her relationship with actress Sophia Bush.
I felt like I was living with a stranger, said Harris, who admitted she "got to a point where I didn't recognize the person I looked at in the mirror" toward the end of her marriage; "And I hated that person. I was just so broken, I was so damaged."
I just had to take my power back, Harris continued, "and unfortunately, people were hurt in that process. And I wanna make room for both because it's not easy...Everyone has an experience. However, only one experience played out in the media, which is quite difficult."
Now that she's had time to reflect on the divorce, Harris said she's "not willing to compromise" her self worth "for other people through this lens of social media."
People think only one person was in pain or people think you have to choose a side that, you know, you have to really punish this person because the idea you had through so social media didn't manage your expectations. However, you haven't lived my experience.
Celeb DatingKrieger opened up about the divorce for the first time in a January interview with SELF, and said she learned that Harris had filed for divorce while she was at practice.
Krieger said she will "never forget that moment" recounting, “I found out at training. I was on the field. And I came off the field, in the locker room, and I was obviously devastated.”
“I’m in this transitioning phase, so I’m unarmoring myself,” she told the magazine. “I have been bare, basically, for the past five months. Walking through it — not around it, over it, under it — literally walking through, feeling all the things, and learning and gaining those tools to be the woman that I’ve always known was there."
On Monday, Nov. 25, the singer-songwriter, 77, said in an interview with Good Morning America that he lost vision in his right eye in July. The vision loss, he said, was due to an eye infection he sustained while spending the summer in the south of France.
There's hope and encouragement that it will be okay, but I'm kind of stuck at the moment ... going into the studio and recording, I don't know, he said.
The singer added that his "left eye's not the greatest," which has prevented him from reading lyrics or watching anything, but that he's "taking the initiative to try and get it better."
In September, the Grammy winner shared in a post on Instagram that he had contracted an infection, noting at the time that he had "only limited vision in one eye."
“I am healing, but it’s an extremely slow process and it will take some time before sight returns to the impacted eye,” the "Rocket Man" singer wrote.
John is currently the star of a documentary of his life, Elton John: Never Too Late, which was co-directed by his husband David Furnish and R.J. Cutler. The film, which features a song of the same name by John and singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, premiered in theaters on Nov. 15 and will be available on Disney+ on Friday, Dec. 13.
“I’m the luckiest man in the world,” he said on GMA. “I’m proud of my attitude toward myself and what’s going on. I’m just very lucky and I’m very grateful.”
It Ends with Us, the hit screen adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel, has gifted audiences a streaming date this holiday season — sooner than you’d think!
Starring Blake Lively as Lily Bloom, a woman facing domestic abuse and struggling to break its cycle, the movie from director-star Justin Baldoni will be available to stream on Netflix starting on Dec. 9, as confirmed by the streaming service’s Tudum.
Upon hitting theaters on Aug. 9, Sony Pictures Releasing's It Ends with Us became a commercial success, grossing over $350 million worldwide. (Fun fact: Lively, 37, and husband Ryan Reynolds became the first married duo in decades to top the box office in two movies at the same time thanks to his summer hit Deadpool & Wolverine.)
Costarring Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Brandon Sklenar and Isabela Ferrer, the movie counts Baldoni's company Wayfarer Studios and Lively among its producers. It was adapted for the screen by Christy Hall from Hoover's hit novel, originally published in 2016.
Baldoni, 40, told PEOPLE ahead of the film’s release that he made It Ends with Us for any audience member who recognizes its patterns of domestic violence “and doesn't go back home… It's about that one person who's in a similar situation to Lily who makes a different choice for herself than was made for her.”
Of Lively, his star and fellow producer, Baldoni recalled being “mesmerized” by her work. “She just checked all the boxes,” he said at the time. “She's a creative force, she's an executive producer on the film, and she is so brilliant. And I believe that her performance is going to help so many women feel seen and showcase this unique experience in a way that I don't believe I've seen in another film.”
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