Ashlyn Harris still rattled by ‘biggest lie’ from painful Ali Krieger split

Harris said she and Krieger — who share custody of their two children, Sloane, 3, and Ocean, 2 — were living separately last summer before their divorce was made public in October 2023.

Harris and Bush went public with their relationship earlier this year, although they were believed to have started dating months before then.

“I had my own apartment and people were starting to recognize me, so I was like we have to come out with a joint statement, people know I live here,” Harris said. “But I think once it all blew up and it affected her last season [Krieger retired in March]. She was pissed and she was angry, and rightfully so.”

Harris filed for divorce on Sept. 19, 2023, citing the marriage is “irretrievably broken,” according to court documents obtained by Page Six. 

The next month, Krieger posted about being in “my Beyonce Lemonade era,” which was a reference to the singer’s infidelity-themed album.

Harris explained that “the reality” of the situation was that she and Krieger had nothing in common after they stopped playing together.

“I just felt like I wasn’t a priority,” she said. “I didn’t feel that sense of connection whether emotional or physical. It was soccer, job, kids and somewhere down the line it was like, ‘OK, what about me?’ I decided to leave my marriage after almost four years and a decade of being together. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life. And I think people miss that. People think only one person was in pain or people think you have to choose a side that you know, you have to punish this person because the idea you had through social media didn’t manage your expectations however you haven’t lived my experience.

“I wanted someone to love me so bad, I caved every bit of who I was inside to try to be more lovable … I just wanted to be enough … I wanted to be able to walk through the door someone miss me, want me and need me in a way that wasn’t so business. On the field everyone thought I was this way, but at home I felt like I was living with a stranger and I just had to take my power back. And unfortunately, people were hurt in that process.”

Harris and Krieger were on two World Cup-winning USWNT teams together in 2015 and 2019 — and they dated for nearly a decade before tying the knot on Dec. 28, 2019, in Miami.

Harris retirement from professional soccer in November 2022, and Krieger called it a career at the end of the 2023 NWSL season.

“Everyone has an experience, however only one experience played out in the media, which was quite difficult … I was looking over the edge,” Harris said. “It was the first time I was like someone needs to take this nine millimeter and get it the f–k away from me.

“I was at probably the lowest … Honestly, I was like, I can’t survive this. Meanwhile, I was being torched while I was trying to raise two kids and go through this process and make sure that my storm didn’t become theirs.”

Harris explained she didn’t feel loved or wanted by Krieger, who wouldn’t “touch me” or be intimate together.

A year prior to their split, Harris recalled making “one last attempt” to save their marriage.

“I started trying all these things — let’s do an open marriage,” she said. “That’s not even me dude. A year before we officially called it quits, that was my last attempt. If I’m not getting what I want and we want to keep this together, which is also the strains the public eye places on you. You feel like you can’t make the brave and hard decisions because you know the impact and wave that will come and that was my biggest fear.”

Bush filed for divorce from Grant Hughes in August 2023 after just 13 months of marriage. 

Krieger said in July she was dating someone new.