Kelly Clarkson Admits to Leaning on ‘Bad Habits’ During Brandon Blackstock Divorce

Kelly Clarkson is opening up about her divorce from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock, admitting that she leaned on some “bad habits” in the aftermath of their split. During a recent conversation with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, the former American Idol winner confessed, “I don’t know how people get through anything like that because I’m not going to say I did it gracefully.”

Clarkson continued, “Behind closed doors by myself, it was not… Just to be brutally honest, I did not handle it well.” She went on to say, “I had many sessions with just my friends of… I couldn’t even speak. I was crying so hard… even before separating. There were just a lot of now unhealthy habits you recognize or habits that you recognize that you didn’t see before. Hindsight is a lot easier.”

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Clarkson and Blackstock reportedly first met in 2006, while he was married to Melissa Ashworth. Blackstock shares two children with Ashworth: daughter Savannah and son Seth. The pair divorced in 2012, the same year he began dating and became engaged to Clarkson. They married in 2013 and share two children: a daughter named River and a son named Remington. Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock in June 2020, with the divorce being finalized in August 2021.

In another recent conversation, Clarkson sat down with the Today show to discuss her forthcoming new album, much of which was inspired by her divorce. “I waited until I was through [the divorce], so now it’s a different chapter for me,” she shared. “I had to wait in order to put this out so I could have interviews and, just honestly, I wouldn’t be crying in all of them.”

The former American Idol champion then opened up about moving her talk show — The Kelly Clarkson Show — from Los Angeles to New York City, explaining, “I think COVID pointed out a lot of things. A lot of us didn’t make it relationship-wise. Also it just proved I’ve never really liked living in LA… I never wanted to live there in the first place. It also has pointed out, especially getting divorced, it was just me and my kids all the way on that coast. All my family lives this coast. So it just got lonely.” 

Finally, Clarkson addressed her dating life, confessing that she is in no hurry for romance again just yet. “I’m not in a bitter place. I love love,” she said. “I’m not closed off, but I’m just not looking at all, either.”