Audrina Patridge goes official on Instagram with her new boyfriend, country singer Michael Ray

The hills Alum confirmed their romance in a sweet post on July 9, in which the couple looks into each other’s eyes.

“There are many things in life that are worth letting go of. But the things that mean the most to you are the ones you have to hold on to 🤍,” the 39-year-old wrote in the caption, quoting a line from her new boyfriend’s song “Hold.”

The feeling is clearly mutual, as Ray replied in the comments section, “Here we go baby!!! I’m thankful for you and Kirra ❤️♾️,” referring to Patridge and her eight-year-old daughter Kirra, whom she has with ex-husband Corey Bohan, to which Patridge wrote back, “❤️❤️.”

They both reshared the post in their stories, with Audrina adding a white heart behind it.

Keen-eyed fans have noticed the connection between the two after seeing them liking each other’s posts over the past few months. Patridge even made it to the country and attended the Stagecoach country music festival, where she was spotted kissing Ray.

Much like Patridge, Ray has had his ups and downs in relationships. Ray recently moved from Nashville to Dallas, Georgia after divorcing fellow country singer Carly Pearce. He has also had to endure several near-deaths in his life.

In June 2020, he and Pearce announced their divorce after just eight months of marriage. Then, in the midst of divorce proceedings, he lost his uncle to a heart attack and eight months later, his aunt committed suicide.

Patridge has spoken openly about her previous relationship with her ex-husband Bohan, which was allegedly marked by emotional abuse. She and BMZ biker Bohan have been together since 2008.

The reality star explained to Alex Cooper Call her daddy Podcast that during their time together, she was inundated with Twitter messages from her fans telling her that Bohan was “making out” with other women in bars while on tour.

Patridge explained that she gave him the benefit of the doubt and eventually became pregnant with Bohan. The couple got engaged and had their daughter Kirra in 2016. They married in November of the same year. Patridge explained that she thought having a child together and getting married would help her, but it didn’t.

The relationship reached a critical point in August 2017 after Patridge accused Bohan of pushing her while she was holding their child during an argument about his alleged infidelity.

“It was kind of fight or flight mode, I was frozen and didn’t know what to do but things just kept escalating and as I was being pushed back Kirra started screaming and crying and then I started crying and then he realised what had happened and he started crying,” Patridge told Cooper. “Everything spiralled out of control and got worse and then my family got involved and the police got involved. After going to therapy and trying to make it work it was like you don’t change, you don’t want to change, I can’t do this anymore.”

She filed for divorce in September of that year, citing other instances of alleged harassment in the divorce papers – including one in which she called the police even though Bohan was not charged with anything. She simultaneously sought and received a restraining order against him because he allegedly showed up at a beauty pageant and demanded to know where her daughter was.

The two finally sorted out their custody agreement in 2021 and share joint custody of Kirra. According to TMZ, Audrina was awarded physical custody while Corey was granted 8 hours of visitation per week.