After nearly seven years of marriage, Kelly Clarkson filed for divorce from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock. The public split was finalized in 2022 after Clarkson was forced to pay Blackstock $1.3 million in child support for their two kids – River Rose, 8 ½ and Remington Alexander, 7.
Videos by American Songwriter
The three-time Grammy Award-winner recently appeared (June 12) on We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle to reflect on her marriage. Although Clarkson revealed that there were several warning signs to leave the relationship in her latest song “Red Flag Collector,” she admitted that her “ego” kept her from walking.
“My ego… [I thought,] ‘I can do this. I can handle so much.’ My ego is, ‘I can control my actions, I can control my reactions, I can do this, and I can reach this person, and I can get through.’ It becomes a little bit of your ego that gets in the way,” shared the hitmaker.
“If I’m being completely honest, we don’t want to do what we saw done. I don’t want my kids to be those kids at school,” she added, referring to her personal experience. Clarkson’s parents separated when she was six years old.
The “Breakaway” singer recalled her childhood and growing up in Fort Worth, Texas, – where divorce was viewed as “taboo.” Clarkson acknowledged that her unconventional upbringing differs from her children, as California is more “progressive.”
“It’s a little different — they grew up here, and it’s a very progressive city. But in the South, there was like two of us with divorced parents in our class. So it was very different,” she explained to the outlet. “Even when you come down to like, daddy-daughter dances and you don’t have anyone show up. You have to think about all of those things, and you play it out differently in your head too.”
She continued, “You try so hard, and you think, ‘I do not want to do that to her. I don’t want to do that to him.’ That you never start thinking about yourself. That’s why sometimes [being] selfish was important to me.”
Since stepping away from the relationship, Clarkson believes she’s become a “far better mother.” Despite the heartbreaking responses, she keeps in tune with her children’s emotions by asking difficult questions.
“I literally ask my kids every night when we’re snuggling up in the bed, ‘Are you happy? And if you’re not, what could make you happier?’ That’s it,” she previously told Angie Martinez on the IRL podcast. She shared that her kids often point out their living situation and custody agreement. “They’re not small feelings. Those are huge feelings, and those are huge emotions.”
Clarkson’s divorce-inspired album, Chemistry, will arrive on June 23.
Brian Bowen Smith / Atlantic Records
