Jack Antonoff stands by his decision to include love songs originally written about his estranged wife, Margaret Qualleyon the tour set list.
“With the songs I’ve been writing lately, I was honestly really worried about this specific thing, and I sat and thought for a long time and thought, ‘If I change the track listing…’ and there was a voice in my gut that was like, ‘No, that’s the deal,'” said Antonoff, 42. Guard in a profile published on Sunday, October 25. “The agreement I made with my audience was: I will tell you honestly how I feel and risk having to stand by it at any time.”
Antonoff in July had left Qualley, 32, after three years of marriage, shortly before the Bleachers frontman embarked on his final live tour.
“Everyone can relate to this terrible sadness and pain, but there’s also great power in it. It was actually really beautiful,” Antonoff told the press. “I mean for people to come together, to know what I wrote a song about, to know what that feels like to me right now, to know what that song means to you as a listener, for you to hold it all and kind of celebrate it.”
He continued, “I’m not rewriting the past, I’m not ashamed of what I said. My life has been dedicated to making it impossible for me to rewrite the past because I’m standing there singing songs about how I feel during the good times, so when the bad times come I can’t look in the mirror and pretend those times didn’t exist. I’d rather go through something publicly than run away privately.”
Neither Antonoff nor Qualley have publicly stated what went wrong in their marriage, but a source claimed: We the couple has “Problems of the last few years.”
“Margaret initiated the split,” an insider exclusively revealed We in July. “Both their busy schedules and their distance were factors, among many other things, such as a lack of trust in the marriage.”
Jack Antonoff did not attend Taylor Swift’s wedding alone because he was separated from his wife Margaret Qualley. On Wednesday, July 9, news broke that Qualley, 31, and Antonoff, 42, had separated after three years of marriage. Rumors about the couple’s situation began to circulate after Qualley did not attend Swift’s wedding to Travis Kelce in New York. […]
According to the source, Antonoff and Qualley have not yet filed for divorce.
“They were still trying to work on the marriage a few months ago, but it ultimately didn’t work out,” the source said. “At some point Margaret’s rose-tinted glasses came off and she felt like she had to take a step back.”
A representative for Qualley addressed the split in a statement on behalf of the actress at the time.
“The narratives in the press about Margaret and Jack are absolutely untrue. There is no trust issue,” the spokesman said. “There was nothing but loyalty and respect in this relationship. They have a deep love and care for each other.”
The statement continued, “There are only two people in this marriage, and the sources who speak to the press and comment on their relationship are not people who know them. Please respect their private lives.”