Kelly Clarkson’s kids are holding out hope that their parents could get back together.
On Tuesday, Clarkson, 41, appeared on an episode of Glennon Doyle’s podcast We Can Do Hard Things and opened up about her divorce from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock. Referencing her book Untamed, Doyle begins to talk about staying in a relationship for her daughter.
“So you read this part of Untamed…where I had this moment where I realized I was staying in the relationship for my little girl, but would I want this relationship for my little girl?” Doyle, 47, says. “And if not, why am I staying in this and calling it good mothering, when really it’s bad modeling.”
“Which is tricky, because I’ve had friends come to me…three years since our separation and I read that and I know that to be true for me,” Clarkson adds. “Even watching my mother in two different marriages, there’s things you pick up on even as a kid that you’re like this is [an] unhealthy…environment to live in.”
Clarkson shares son Remington “Remy” Alexander, 7, and daughter River Rose, 8½, with Blackstock, whom she divorced in 2020 after nearly seven years of marriage.
“It was one of those things where I read [Doyle’s book]…the tug of loving someone so deeply and the tug of really needing to love yourself as much or more, I just don’t know if I can do this while still trying to do this anymore.” Clarkson continues.
“It’s interesting because you think about your kids, right, and you’re like, ‘Oh man, I wonder how is this going to affect them?’ I remember how it affected me, and [my husband] has also been through a divorce with his family, so I was like, nobody wants that,” the star says.
“You try and you try and you try but then, you figure out, well I don’t want them growing up with this unhealthy [relationship]. But I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve had people come to me that are going through divorce or going through really hard relationships with kids, it doesn’t matter either way you go.”
“Your kids will still have a hard time. It doesn’t matter if you stay, it doesn’t matter if you go, I am still having conversations [with my kids] three years later,” the Stronger singer reveals. “My kids just came back from my ex and any time there’s mention of maybe him being with somebody else…they are just really adamant about keeping that dream alive that we might still be together one day.”
Talking about how hard the end of her relationship was, Clarkson says, “I don’t know that it’s better in the end, either way it’s hard.” But despite the trials, she affirms that she’s “a better mother after.”
“I’m a far better mother because when you’re honest with yourself, you’re able to be honest with others.”