It's been nearly four years since Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson Ross decided to end their marriage, and now, the Fall Out Boy bassist is ready to reveal why they weren't meant to be after all. Wentz, 35, spoke candidly about the demise of their relationship on Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show Tuesday.
"Did you think you would be married forever or did you know it was going south?" Stern asked.
"I thought it was forever," the rocker replied. "My parents have been married, I think, 35 years. I don't really know. Forty years, this year, maybe? But no, I didn't. At the same time, we were both very young."
In 2010, Fall Out Boy went on hiatus—and it took a toll on Wentz's marriage. "Here's what it really was: At 31, we'd had all these great years as a band, and then we took time off, and I basically became Mr. Mom," he said, referring to son Bronx Wentz, 6. "I had the beard, the flannel shirt. I didn't know what my identity was. That factored in. When your identity is what you do, it's hard when you stop doing it."
Wentz grew a beard just to see if he could, but he kept it longer than he expected. "It was the first time where I was like, 'Well, no one's really taking my picture. I'm just basically hanging out with my kid all day. Who cares?' I think when you stop caring about your personal appearance, your personal hygiene, it makes you even more depressed, but it makes you do it more," he explained. "It's like a vicious cycle."
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