Kelly Clarkson isn't your ordinary pop star. She was the first-ever artist
to clench the title of American Idol, and since then, she's become a household name.
But the road to music royalty hasn't exactly been smooth for her. In fact, she's had to endure
all kinds of hardships in her lifetime. Here are some of the tragic details about Kelly Clarkson.
When Clarkson was just 6 years old, her parents got a divorce,
and not surprisingly, the experience left a mark on the singer. But being the artist that she is,
Clarkson opened up about the split in the song "Because of You," which gives listeners insight
into Clarkson's feelings on the matter. In an interview with MTV News, she explained,
"It's about the cycle of families, like you act how your parents acted towards you
and then your kids act how you acted towards them, and it's all about breaking that cycle."
And doing just that is something Clarkson strives for in her personal life.
While the song isn't exactly a happy one,
Clarkson knew that the lyrics and sentiment would hit home for listeners. She went on to say,
"It's one of those songs that everybody's kind of gonna relate to,
but you're not happy about that. It's very close to home."
If you were wondering, Clarkson did get her family's consent to release the song.
After Clarkson's parents split up, the "Since U Been Gone" singer definitely
ended up being closer to her mother. In fact, as Clarkson tells it, she and her father have
been estranged for some time. She revealed in a 2017 interview with Skavlan that she's, quote,
"never really been in touch with him." And while many people may feel sad for Clarkson,
she claims she's not too bothered by the situation. She explained,
"I think if you don't grow up with it, it's hard to miss something you never had."
That's not to say that Clarkson hasn't done her best to mend any
brokenness in her family, though. She admitted,
"I definitely tried a few times in my life, and I did that more for my
brother. [...] He really is that kid that really wanted everybody to come together."
But in the end, Clarkson says it's healthiest to
not keep toxic people in your life, no matter who they are.
"And it's okay, that's not a hateful situation, it's just, you go your own way."
Clarkson is worth a lot of money these days — an estimated $45 million — but
that hasn't always been the case. In fact, when she was growing up,
Clarkson was only a few steps away from poverty. She told CBS News,
"We lived, like, pre-paycheck to pre-paycheck. I definitely had this whole mentality. I was like,
'Whatever I'm going to do, I just don't want to have to worry about that.'"
She definitely accomplished that goal. This explains why Clarkson doesn't like it when
people claim that money doesn't buy happiness. According to her,
that's just something rich people say. She said,
"I don't know one poor person that's going, 'Money doesn't buy you happiness.'
It pays you to get out of eviction notices, so it's pretty good!"
It's not surprising, then, that Clarkson is also known for her
philanthropy — she believes in the importance of giving back.
When Clarkson first tried out for American Idol, she didn't know what she was auditioning for.
At the time, Clarkson just knew that it paid, and figured she might wind
up as a backup singer after that. In a chat with The Guardian, she revealed,
"I didn't go into it thinking this would happen.
I went into it thinking it might pay my electric bill."
Clarkson's circumstances were actually quite dire at the time, too,
as she'd run into some pretty bad luck. She explained,
"My apartment in LA burned down and I had to move
home. I had no money and I had to sleep in my car for three days."
Given her humble background, Clarkson still pinches herself sometimes when
she thinks about where she's ended up. She added,
"I work very hard, but I always wonder how in the world I got here."
After winning American Idol, Clarkson was signed to a record deal, and she worked with some of
the biggest producers in the entire entertainment industry. Unfortunately, she had trouble dealing
with some of them — and they told her that her songwriting was subpar. Clive Davis, who headed
RCA in 2004, reportedly disparaged Clarkson and told her that her song "Because of You"
was crappy — in front of a bunch of other people. She explained in an interview with Variety,
"A group of men thought it was OK to sit around a young woman and bully her.
I was told I should shut up and sing."
Fortunately, Clarkson ended up winning that battle,
without having to do anything other than be herself. She added,
"And then, this is the best part. [Davis] played me the song that should be on the
album, which was 'Behind These Hazel Eyes,' which I wrote."
It's no secret that with great fame comes a lot of wonderful things, like money, admiration,
and the power to have your voice heard. However, on the flip side, it also comes with intense
public scrutiny for everything you do. That's something that Clarkson learned firsthand — plenty
of folks were picking her apart after she became a celeb. Chatting with CBS News, she shared,
"In my twenties, yes, I felt that pressure all the time. Everybody always had something
to say — musically, physically, what I was saying disappointed, whatever."
"People get really really cruel, and it's a lot to handle."
Fortunately, by the time Clarkson reached her 30s, she'd learned to adjust, and had grown a
thicker skin. To that end, she was going to be herself in every way — musically,
physically, and emotionally — and let the haters be damned. She added,
"You can either love it,
or you don't have to. There's plenty of other artists out there to love."
In Clarkson's early days of fame, she was quite slender. But what you might
not have known was that at that time, Clarkson wasn't doing well at all.
Speaking with Attitude about the years when she was super-thin, she confessed,
"I was miserable, like inside and out, for four years of my life."
Unfortunately, because Clarkson was considered to be attractive and successful,
no one knew she was suffering. Staying so thin
had some pretty negative impacts on Clarkson's body, too. She explained,
"I like wrecked my knees and my feet because all
I would do is put in headphones and run. I was at the gym all the time."
To be clear, Clarkson wasn't miserable because she had to be
skinny. After that interview was published, she tweeted,
"I said I was miserable [and] as a result I became thin."
When Clarkson married her husband, Brandon Blackstock, in an idyllic outdoor wedding in 2013,
she looked happier than she ever had. But of course, the tabloids couldn't help
but try to chip away at Clarkson's wedded bliss. Specifically, The Dirty managed to find
sources who said they'd been with Blackstock behind his wife's back. One woman claimed,
"We met at a golf club in [Tennessee] and have exchanged multiple texts and hung out
a few times. We haven't slept together but we've been intimate in other ways."
That's not all, either, as another woman claimed to have been seriously
intimate with Blackstock as well. She shared,
"It amazes me how manipulative this guy can be. One minute he's professing his undying
love for his wife and the next minute he's stepping out on her when she's not looking."
Unbothered, Clarkson shut down the rumor mill in a tweet, writing,
"Keep hearing random rumors of me [and] Brandon
splitting or [that] he's cheating on me. Stop with all the lying please."
On June 12th, 2014, Clarkson gave birth to her first child with Blackstock, River Rose,
which Clarkson announced in a tweet. Naturally,
the new parents were ecstatic about their bundle of joy. However, what fans only learned later was
that Clarkson had severe sickness when she was pregnant with her daughter. She told CBS News,
"I got really sick to where I was losing weight at first. And then I got scared,
you know, because I couldn't stop getting sick, non-stop."
Clarkson was vomiting so much that she even had to be hospitalized at one point. However,
for as rough as Clarkson's first pregnancy was,
any discomfort and pain faded once her beautiful daughter arrived. She added,
"I'd go through it all again. I had the perfect baby."
Clarkson did go through the gauntlet again, as she gave birth to her son,
Remington Alexander, two years later on April 12th, 2016. In a tweet, she gushed,
"He is healthy [and] we couldn't be happier or more in love."
After enduring two tough pregnancies,
Clarkson decided she wasn't going to have any more children. And for her,
the choice seemed clear. Chatting with Cubby and Carolina in the Morning, she revealed,
"Oh god, those tubes are gone. That's blasphemy. We don't even speak of it."
Of course, the reason for Clarkson's decision was that her previous pregnancies had been
incredibly difficult for her. Still, it's not lost on Clarkson that other couples struggle
when they're trying to grow their families, and she's sympathetic about that. She added,
"I always feel bad because I have friends who have a hard time getting pregnant
and I'm just like guys, I have the worst pregnancies ever, it can't happen again."
In 2017, Clarkson and her family were subjected to a terrifying invasion of privacy:
their Los Angeles home was burglarized — and badly. She told Extra,
"We got robbed last night. We got here and our whole house was like bashed in, it was crazy."
Fortunately, Clarkson and her family weren't home at the time,
which definitely made the whole thing less scary. Still, she felt violated. She explained,
"Materialistic things we didn't care about, [but] the guy was in our kid's room.
So it was a little weird, [but] other than that everyone is safe and good."
Ever the person to look on the bright side of things,
Clarkson was quick to share her gratitude that the robbery hadn't been worse. She said,
"Other than that little hiccup everything has been really great in our lives."
Like so many others, 2020 was tough on Clarkson. Speaking to Today, she confessed,
"I mean, it's no secret. My life has been a little bit of a dumpster. [...] Personally,
it's been a little hard the last couple months."
In June of 2020, Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock, whom she'd been married to
for seven years. Naturally, Clarkson was devastated about the split,
but she reached out for support when she needed it. She revealed,
"I've been talking to friends that have been through divorce.
I don't know how people go through that without having some kind of
outlet because it is the worst thing ever for everyone involved."
"It's horrible. There are so many hard parts.
The hardest for me is the kids, that's the hardest for me."
The reason Clarkson filed for divorce was "irreconcilable differences" — though later
revelations would become more shocking. Clarkson was awarded primary custody.
"Not just for me, but also for my current husband, I'm like,
'This isn't happiness,’ you know, for both of us, I feel both of us deserve better."
For the longest time, Clarkson and Blackstock seemed to be the happiest of couples. So when
Clarkson filed for divorce, fans were understandably a bit shocked. After all,
the couple had just started a family a few years prior.
As for what caused trouble in paradise,
legal documents obtained by Us Weekly revealed a bit more to the story. According to the outlet,
Clarkson sued the management company run by Blackstock's father, Starstruck Management Group,
and alleged that her husband and the company, quote, "defrauded her out of millions of dollars."
Allegedly, Blackstock and his father aren't licensed to be agents in the state of California,
which apparently renders all of their work null and void. She also claimed
that Blackstock and the company had been "charging her outlandish fees."
Clarkson's lawsuit came after Starstruck Management Group alleged that Clarkson
owes them $1.4 million, according to Variety. And while the truth is yet to be determined,
the whole ordeal is already tragic for Clarkson and her children. Hang in there, Kelly.
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