Kelly Clarkson got frank about the impact of her divorce on her children when she visited Angie Martinez’s IRL Podcast on Monday. The American Idol OG winner and talk show host shared about her 2020 split from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock. Kelly encourages her children River (8) and Remi (6) to express their feelings honestly.
“I literally ask my kids every night when we’re snuggling, ‘Are you happy?’ And if you’re not, what could make you happier?” The Voice coach said. “Sometimes they’ll say — especially the past two years — a lot of it — and it kills me — and I want them to be honest so I don’t ever say, ‘Oh god, don’t tell me that,’ but a lot of times it would be like, ‘You know, I’m just really sad. I wish Mommy and Daddy were in the same house.’ And they’re really honest about it. And I’m raising that kind of individual.”
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“I just sit there and I’m like, ‘I get it. I’m from a divorced family as well. I get it. That sucks. But we’re going to work it out. And you are so loved by both of us,'” she said. “I think communicating with them and not treating them — not treating them like an adult, because they’re not — but not treating them like a child. They’re not small feelings. Those are huge feelings, and those are huge emotions.”
For years, Kelly contemplated a divorce
It was a book by Glennon Doyle titled Untamed that convinced her to finally end her marriage. She had been contemplating the move for “years.”
The author posed the question: Would she want her daughter to have her marriage? The answer was no, and so she moved to split from Blackstock.
“It just changed the perspective on that,” Kelly said of the book. “I am a way better parent when I take care of myself — the oxygen mask mentality, right? And you do have to take care of yourself in order for that to trickle down.”
The singer filed for divorce from her ex-husband in June 2020 after nearly seven years of marriage, and their divorce was finally settled in March 2022.
Kelly said that Blackstock was her “first” real love. “My kids ask me all the time, ‘So you don’t love him anymore?’ I’m like, ‘No, I don’t know if that goes away,'” she admitted.
On Kelly’s next record there will be “sadness” and “rage”
Her marriage is something Kelly will be exploring on her next record.
“Every phase is on my next record. There is sadness. There is rage. It’s a lot because you go through all those emotions,” she explained. “If you don’t hit all those, were you really in it?… I was destroyed, like, on the ground, crying. That’s a loss. It’s a death.”
In the future, Kelly would “love to fall in love” but that she doesn’t see marriage in her future. “I don’t want another dude in my house with my children,” she said, after experiencing a step parent situation herself.
“I really do, truly love being single,” she said. “I like my bed. I like my routine.”
Watch the interview below.
