The Tragedy Of Kelly Clarkson Explained

More than two decades later, probably the most famous person to ever win a season of "American Idol" is still the first person to win one, and that's Kelly Clarkson. Instantly elevated to celebrity status, Clarkson went on to become one of the most successful and omnipresent hitmakers of the 21st century, belting out epic ballads such as "A Moment Like This" and "Behind These Hazel Eyes" as well as pop-rock jams like "Since U Been Gone" and "Breakaway." In recent years, she's transitioned into the host of the Emmy Award-winning daytime variety program "The Kelly Clarkson Show." Clarkson can seemingly do it all.

While her public persona is one of a low-key and happy-go-lucky yet preternaturally talented musician, behind the scenes, Clarkson has had a troubled personal life. From early childhood and well into her years as a household name and pop star, a lot of sad, bad, and downright traumatic stuff has happened to or around the star.

Kelly Clarkson's 2005 gut-punch of a top-10 hit, "Because of You," is an epic, tear-jerking power ballad in which the narrator blames a figure from her past for many of her contemporary fears and mental health issues. There's a tragic true story behind that iconic song. "It's one of those songs that everybody's kind of gonna relate to, but you're not happy about that," Clarkson told MTV. The singer's parents broke up when she was 6 years old, and from that point on, her father was actively indifferent and not a part of Clarkson's life. "I've never really been in touch with him," Clarkson said on "Skavlan." "If someone presents such a cancerous environment and then just keeps hurting you," she explained, "you should just not have that person in your life."

Clarkson's mother remarried, but that relationship also ended in divorce when the future star was young. She says she attempted a reconciliation with her biological father, but it never quite happened. "All the moments that I really did try and make it work with my father and life and just get completely let down," she ruminated to Forbes in 2019. "You know he passed away months ago. So ... that's why."

Just before "American Idol" would make her a star, Kelly Clarkson moved from her home in Texas to the entertainment capital of the country, Los Angeles. A stranger needed a roommate, and Clarkson accepted the offer — until the residence caught fire. The singer then experienced firsthand a taste of the messed-up truth about homelessness in America. "We moved to a place and then it burned down," she said on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" in 2023. "I slept in my car for a few days." 

Out of money, Clarkson returned home to Texas out of desperation, and then went on a tryout in Dallas for a not-yet-aired TV show. "I just auditioned for this thing that said they'd pay you, and it happened to be 'American Idol,'" Clarkson told The Guardian. "I went into it thinking it might pay my electric bill." The need to survive was something entrenched in Clarkson since childhood, having been raised in a household beset with money problems. "We had fun but there was struggle too. Now I don't have to worry about having clean clothes or paying the bills too late, but that level of stress definitely has an effect," Clarkson told The Mirror.

The music industry was a messed-up place in the 2000s, and just after winning Season 1 of "American Idol," Kelly Clarkson suffered for trying to be true to her creative impulses. Reality TV contestants have to follow certain rules, and winning "American Idol" came with an RCA Records contract. Clarkson didn't get much say in the kind of music she got to record. 

"I think a lot of artists have this story where you feel like you're put in this box," Clarkson told Variety. "It's just not every artist that had an arranged marriage right off the bat." She liked the song "Miss Independent"; RCA executives didn't. "I had to cry to get that song not only on my record but as the first single," she said. It performed well with test audiences, so it ultimately passed muster. "Everybody was like, 'That can't be. There are too many guitars. That's not really your sound. You're the next Whitney Houston.'"

Houston's mentor, former Arista Records head Clive Davis, moved to RCA in 2004, and he initially rejected "Because of You" — a song Clarkson co-wrote – from the singer's 2004 album "Breakaway." "I was told that was a s****y song because it didn't rhyme," Clarkson recalled, and she was told that in front of many executives. "I was told I should shut up and sing." Davis's recommendation for a better-written replacement was "Behind These Hazel Eyes," which Clarkson also, somewhat ironically, co-wrote.

Following a grueling tour in support of "Breakaway," contracting pneumonia twice, coping with an unfaithful partner, and a bout of depression, Kelly Clarkson took three months off to convalesce at home in Texas and wrote an album's worth of material, which was darker and more introspective than anything she'd ever composed. In January 2007, Clarkson presented the completed "My December" album to RCA Records head Clive Davis. In one of the more questionable decisions in music industry history, Davis at first wouldn't release the LP, then ordered Clarkson to majorly rework it. She refused, and the delayed album hit stores in July 2007. Industry wisdom at the time held that "My December" was a flop, as it didn't go multi-platinum and generated just one single.

Six years later, Clive Davis published his memoir, "The Soundtrack of My Life," which reignited the spat with Clarkson. Claiming the book suffered from Davis's "memory lapses and misinformation," as Clarkson alleged on WhoSay (via The Hollywood Reporter), the singer alleged that Davis purposely sank "My December." "He doesn't mention how he stood up in front of his company at a convention and belittled me and my music and completely sabotaged the entire project," Clarkson wrote. "The fact that I was so completely disregarded and disrespected was so disheartening."

In the early 2000s, the American standard of beauty, particularly for female pop singers, was skinniness. During "American Idol" in 2002, Kelly Clarkson was objectively slender, but it wasn't good enough for her handlers. "I was really thin, but I was bigger than the other girls on the show, so people would say things to me," Clarkson told People. "But luckily I am super-confident, so I've never had a problem with shutting people down and saying, 'Yeah, you know, that's just what I'm rocking. It's fine.'"

"American Idol"-era body-shaming arrived after Clarkson had already dealt with an eating disorder in her teen years. Theorizing that she'd be cast in school plays if she lost weight, Clarkson developed bulimia. And over her first few album cycles, Clarkson again felt the pressure to be as thin as possible, which coincided with some mental health crises. "When I was really skinny, I wanted to kill myself. I was miserable," she told Attitude (via People). "I was miserable, like inside and out, for four years of my life. But no one cared, because aesthetically you make sense." 

She later clarified on X, formerly known as Twitter: "I said I was miserable and as a result I become thin." Clarkson lost weight through extreme exercise. "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."

If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

Over the span of 2023, Kelly Clarkson lost a considerable amount of weight. In 2024, she explained on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" that the physical shift had been the result of delayed action following a medical diagnosis. "I was told I was prediabetic," she explained (via NBC's "Today"). "I wasn't shocked. I was a tiny bit overweight." Doctors told Clarkson she was just on the edge of developing type 2 diabetes, characterized by high blood sugar levels caused by insulin resistance, generally managed by weight loss, diet, and medication. After ruminating on the issue for two years, Clarkson decided to stave off diabetes through exercise and a high-protein diet.

Clarkson has also dealt with other medical conditions. Along with an unidentified autoimmune condition diagnosed in 2006, Clarkson's thyroid gland doesn't work correctly. She worked on both by eating organic, non-processed foods, and was able to stop taking medication for one of those conditions. Furthermore, Clarkson has coped with depression, particularly following her divorce in 2020. "The level of depression and things that come with divorce or grieving is extraordinarily hard. You feel alone," she told People.

If you or someone you know needs help with mental health, please contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.

During her marriage to Brandon Blackstock, Kelly Clarkson maintained two homes: a house in the Los Angeles area and an expansive ranch in rural Montana. Living in one, while also traveling extensively for her work in the entertainment business, meant the homes were unoccupied for significant stretches of time. In 2017, Clarkson returned to the LA area to attend a music industry event, and upon arriving at her Los Angeles home, found that it had been recently burglarized. "We got robbed last night," Clarkson told Extra on the red carpet of the Billboard Women in Music Awards." "Yeah, it was crazy, we got here and our whole house was like bashed in."

Clarkson reported that while the thief or thieves had made off with a number of items, it was the violation of privacy that stung the most. "Materialistic things we didn't care about, the guy was in our kid's room," she said. "So it was a little weird, other than that everyone is safe and good."

Pop singer and talk show host Kelly Clarkson has two children, daughter River Rose Blackstock, born in 2014, and son Remington Alexander Blackstock, who arrived in 2015. Both of those pregnancies evolved into medical ordeals for Clarkson. Experiencing the symptoms of hyperemesis (morning sickness), Clarkson endured high levels of nausea, vomiting as often as 25 times each day. In the week before her scheduled delivery date, Clarkson's body hadn't properly dilated, causing her to panic. 

Clarkson elected for a Caesarean section, and during the procedure, doctors diagnosed an issue with the pelvic inlet. "I was on the table, while the surgery is happening, and my doctors told me," Clarkson said on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" (via Young Hollywood). Had a C-section not been performed or been unavailable, vaginal childbirth may have been fatal for Clarkson. The musician faced all-consuming nausea during her second pregnancy. "I have to get IVs and fluids because I get so dehydrated. It's really bad," Clarkson told "CBS Mornings" (via Us Weekly). Hospitalized at various points during both pregnancies, Clarkson later underwent a surgical procedure to prevent having more children.

In the first years of their lives, both of Clarkson's children faced troubles. River was bullied for her lack of reading ability, attributed to dyslexia, and Remy's communication benchmarks were delayed by nine months. "He had a speech problem because he had this ear problem when he was a baby," Clarkson told People.

In October 2013, Kelly Clarkson married her talent manager, Brandon Blackstock. By the end of the year, Clarkson was pregnant with the newlywed couple's first child, a period that was made stressful and embarrassing with tabloid-fueled talk of infidelity. "Keep hearing rumors of me & Brandon splitting or that he's cheating on me," Clarkson wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in December 2013. "Stop with all the lying please."

Clarkson's wide social media reach only amplified reports circulating on gossip sites about her husband's supposed straying. Two women, who chose to remain anonymous, made accusations of Blackstock's infidelity to the website The Dirty (via The Daily Mail). One said she'd been engaged in an affair with Blackstock since June 2013, when they met at a golf course in Tennessee, months before he married Clarkson. A second woman said not only had she been seeing Blackstock, but that her night with him had resulted in a pregnancy, stating, "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."

In one tragic detail about a talk show host, Kelly Clarkson filed divorce proceedings in the middle of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, seeking a legal split from Brandon Blackstock, her husband of almost seven years and the father of her two children. The cause, per Clarkson's petition, was irreconcilable differences. 

The court ruled Clarkson and Blackstock to be single in the eyes of the law in August 2021, months after granting primary physical custody of the children to Clarkson. The kids lived with Clarkson in Los Angeles, where she produced "The Kelly Clarkson Show," while Blackstock stayed at their jointly owned Montana ranch. "We have a lot of help as far as therapists or child psychologists because we want to do it right," Clarkson told "Extra" (via PageSix). "Everyone's sad and it's okay to be sad."

Blackstock filed for spousal and child support, wanting $436,000 a month. The final divorce settlement in 2022 ultimately called for Clarkson to give Blackstock a lump sum of about $1.3 million, monthly child support payments of $45,601 per child until they reach age 18, and $115,000 in spousal support through January 2024. Then in late 2023, the California Labor Commission ruled that Blackstock, while acting as Clarkson's manager, made business arrangements that he wasn't authorized to arrange. Clarkson won a $2.6 million judgment against Blackstock.

Kelly Clarkson is an iconic musician with a stage name, as of 2022. During her contentious, years-long divorce proceedings from her estranged husband and former manager Brandon Blackstock, Clarkson made another legal maneuver to protect herself and her identity moving forward. In February 2022, Clarkson filed a petition with a court to change her name to Kelly Briane. That made what was previously her middle name legally her last name, while she continued to use "Kelly Clarkson" as her name in all professional capacities. "My new name more fully reflects who I am," the newly and tentatively christened, until a formal hearing took place, Kelly Briane said in the documents (via Us Weekly).

After the very upsetting and life-upending divorce, Clarkson didn't want to be burdened by her now former husband's name, nor did she wish to personally use her family name that carried with it its own baggage. "I just kept my middle name for my personal life. I'm still Kelly Clarkson," she told People. "I don't think I can change Clarkson at this point. I'm 20 years in!"