Singer Elle King overcame her "tough" marriage split by throwing herself into her music and ridding her life of bad people.
The Ex's & Oh's star announced she had split from her husband Andrew Ferguson on Instagram in May (17), and in the same post, revealed the couple had actually been married for over a year, after secretly tying the knot just three weeks into its romance.
"My heart is broken. My soul aches. I am lost," she added. "He is the greatest love of my life. He is my best friend. As we separate, and attempt to find our footing through life, all I can hope for us is that we both find happiness within ourselves."
After struggling with a bout of depression, the 28-year-old bounced back by striking up a romance with rocker Josh Logan in September (17), and Elle admits she is "proud" of how far she's come from the dark days she suffered in the immediate aftermath of her marital breakdown.
"I pulled myself out of a really, really, really tough place," she tells People magazine. "I'm really proud of myself."
Elle credits her newfound happiness to re-evaluating her priorities and the people in her life.
"I don't want to say it's the best place I've ever been because there's always room to go higher - or get higher," she joked. "I am having a lot of fun. I do this thing, I call it protecting my joy, and there's like a 10-foot radius around me that's like a bum-out-free zone. I took a lot of things out of my life that were dead weight, and I just have a different outlook; I just surround myself with better people and just make music all the time. It's just so great; it's awesome."
The result of her more recent studio sessions is her upcoming album, the follow-up to her 2015 debut Love Stuff, which she promises fans will be worth the wait.
"The record is a whole other entity in and of itself," explains Elle, the daughter of comedy star Rob Schneider. "It's a creation that is beyond me as a person, as a soul, and it's the most magical thing that I've done in my life so far, and I've never been more proud of anything.
"This album is the only thing that really, truly got me through it (her break-up). And to have such an incredible thing, a tangible thing to hold on to, after going through something, it's really kind of a blessing - it's not just a reminder; it's like a journal but just rock 'n' roll."
