Kelly Clarkson Opens Up About Her Divorce: 'This Isn't Happiness'
Kelly Clarkson opens up about leaving her marriage for her kids
Kelly Clarkson has been going through a very public divorce from her now estranged husband Brandon Blackstock and while Clarkson has been relatively quiet on the subject as her custody proceedings are plastered across TMZ, Clarkson finally opened up about the split to author Glennon Doyle during a recent episode of the singer’s talk show and said that the main motivator for leaving her marriage was fearing the effect that staying married would have on her children.
Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock in June after seven years of marriage and told her talk show audience in September that she’ll reveal more about the breakup when she feels comfortable. “So I’m usually very open and I usually talk about everything but in this case I will talk a little bit here and there about how it affects me personally, but probably won’t go too far into it…” Clarkson said at the time.
On December 1, 2020 Clarkson opened up in a big way with Doyle — who has written books about her divorce — and said that the breakup has been “horrible.”
“There are so many hard parts,” Clarkson said. “The hardest for me is the kids…I think, as women especially, we’re trained to take it all on and deal with it and you’re fine. But it’s your babies that you worry about.”
Doyle agreed, saying the hardest part of going through a divorce is “always the kids.”
“We’re trained to believe to avoid at all costs a broken family,” Doyle told Clarkson and shared that she “stayed” in her marriage “for her daughter,” before realizing what message she was sending to her daughter in doing that.
“We’ve all been trained to believe a good mother is a liar,” Doyle continued. “I didn’t leave a marriage in spite of being a good mother; I left because I am a good mother. A good mother is a model, not a martyr.”
This line — “A good mother is a model, not a martyr” — resonated deeply with Clarkson.
“That’s what I needed to see to make a step in my own life,” Clarkson said. “This isn’t happiness, and we both deserve better. That line so hit home for me: I don’t want this for everyone in this scenario right now.”
Clarkson was recently awarded primary physical custody of her and Blackstock’s two children, who she said are her only priority right now. “We know the best thing here is to protect our children and their little hearts,” Clarkson shared back in September. “I’m a mama bear and my kids come first.”
