This article originally appeared on E! Online.
Ashlyn Harris is reflecting on a hard moment of her past.
Over a year after the soccer player separated from her ex-wife Ali Krieger — with whom she shares kids Sloane, 3, and Ocean, 2 — Harris detailed the unraveling that led to her divorce filing, feeling as though her perspective didn’t “play out” in the media following their breakup.
“I said, ‘Okay I love this human so much, I want to make this work,’” she recalled thinking as her former relationship took a turn for the worst on the "Naked Sports with Cari Champion" podcast on Nov. 25. “‘Even though I’m sacrificing what makes me happy and seen, this is for the greater good because this is compromise.’”
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The 39-year-old — who began dating Sophia Bush in October 2023 — shared that her and Harris’ relationship began to feel like “business,” especially after she retired from soccer in 2022 (Krieger continued to play until March 2023).
“I constantly wanted more,” Harris continued. “I constantly wanted the feeling of being loved the same way I loved — I just felt like I wasn’t a priority.”
READ Ashlyn Harris Shares Glimpse Into Girlfriend Sophia Bush’s Bond With Her Kids
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And Harris even shared the “last attempt” she made to save her marriage.
“I became very good at disassociating,” the USWNT alum recollected of the time before she filed for divorce in September 2023. “I started trying all of these things, I was like, ‘Let’s do an open marriage,’ and that’s just not even me.”
But while Harris — who noted that the former couple’s lack of intimacy was “just the facts”— acknowledged the perception that she seemingly moved on quickly by debuting a romance with Bush just a month after she filed for divorce from her ex, she described the separation as the “hardest thing” she’s ever had to do.
“People miss that,” Harris explained. “People think only one person was in pain or people think you have to choose a side. That you have to really punish this person because the idea you had through social media didn’t manage your expectations.”
Still, Harris wasn’t deflecting all of the blame, either. As she noted, “I had to take my power back, and people were hurt in that process."
E! News has reached out to reps for Krieger regarding Harris' recent comments but has not yet heard back.
For Krieger’s part, she recently told E! News that she wasn’t feeling “numb” anymore after her divorce, and is navigating a new, private relationship.
“[With] everything I went through last year, I want to keep that more so for me and for her,” she told E! News in September. “I think it's really important that I take this process slower, have a good concern for it and make sure that it's moving in the right direction before any big announcement.”
