Kelsea Ballerini shared how she feels about marriage years after her divorce and in “a very new kind of love” with actor Chase Stokes.

Ballerini, 31, recently met with PEOPLE for an in-depth interview for the publication’s latest cover story, unveiled on Tuesday morning (April 1). During the interview, the powerhouse singer-songwriter spoke about growing up in East Tennessee, the role models who became her peers in the music industry, serving as a first-time coach on The Voice (alongside Adam Levine, John Legend and Michael Bublé), her first headlining arena tour, finding love again after divorce, and more.

“Ironically, I started writing songs when my parents got divorced. That was the catalyst,” Ballerini said. She was 12 when her parents split up and songwriting became “the safest thing in my life.” Years later, Ballerini was going through a divorce of her own. She parted ways with fellow country artist Morgan Evans in 2022 after nearly five years of marriage. After Evens released a heartbreak ballad about the divorce, Ballerini wrote Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, a vulnerable EP that shares Ballerini’s side of the heartache. She told PEOPLE it was “full circle” to write those songs as she “was going through what my parents went through, and I went back to writing songs simply because I had to. I didn’t care where it fit. I didn’t care if it was too pop. I didn’t care if it rhymed. I didn’t care if it was one minute or six. I was just like, ‘I have to get it out of me and put it somewhere for safekeeping.’ And the intention was pure.”

Ballerini said she wrote “Blindsided” first, and never intended to release Rolling Up The Welcome Mat at first. She said “my intention putting it out was to show other sides of heartbreak — to have more narrative, especially for women, around life changes and divorce.” She credited fellow singer-songwriters Carly Pearce and Kacey Musgraves with releasing music that made women’s side of heartbreak “not so taboo” to talk about. “I felt brave enough to do it.”

Ballerini slid into Stokes’ DMs on Instagram in December 2022, and the couple began dating in January 2023. She shared Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, which released on Valentine’s Day that year, with her new boyfriend, “and he was and has been nothing but so supportive of that level of honesty... Now my version of love that I’ve found, it’s steady and it’s human, and we work on it,” Ballerini said in her interview.”That, to me, honestly, is the sexiest thing, like, ‘Hey, you want to go to therapy? Let’s go to therapy.’ Being so down with your person to put in the work for each other and individually, it’s a very new kind of love for me.”

The off-camera interviewer asked Ballerini, “do you still believe in marriage?”

She replied with a laugh: “I do. I do. I definitely do. I’ve learned so much, and I’ve grown up a lot. ...I love love, and I think different people have different goals and what it can look like, you know? I don’t know. I don’t know what the future holds, but I value partnership very heavily …I’m open, but who knows.”

Find Ballerini’s full PEOPLE cover story here, and watch her interview below.

Scotty