Kelly Clarkson is opening up about why she stayed in a relationship with her ex-husband Brandon Blackstock for as long as she did.
The Grammy winner and talk show host recently appeared on Glennon Doyle’s podcast, “We Can Do Hard Things”, and discussed the difficult decision to leave her then husband.
“I’m like, ‘I can do this. I can handle so much.’ My ego is like, ‘I can control my actions. I can control my reactions. I can do this and I can reach this person and I can get through,'” the former Voice coach explained.
“It becomes a little bit of your ego that gets in the way.”
The singer-songwriter admitted she didn’t want her kids to be “those kids” at school.
“If I’m being completely honest, we don’t want to do what we saw done,” Clarkson said referring to her parents who divorced when she was just six years old.
“When you come down to it, like daddy-daughter dances and you don’t have anyone show up,” she said. “You have to think of all those things.”
In the end, after almost seven years of marriage, Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock in 2020. Their divorce was finalized in 2022. The couple now share joint custody of their children, daughter River Rose, 9, and son Remy, 7.
Clarkson later spoke about how she felt her “light” was dimming in her relationship.
“You choose to dim it. If I’m not around people like friends, families and lovers that are OK with the amount of light that I have then we’re just not meant to be together and that’s OK,” she said. “But to dull yourself so you feel like somebody else can shine or so you feel like you’re not in the way or whatever the situation is… that’s not a healthy way to live.”
“I felt limited. And I don’t feel like that’s the truth for all marriages, I just think that was my case. To say that’s just his fault, that’s my fault for allowing that to happen. That’s my work as well. It could also be limiting because as in love as I was, I just wasn’t ready. Maybe the other person wasn’t either and you try to make it work but it doesn’t.”
Unless you go through a similar situation, you’ll never know how hard it is to leave a toxic relationship.
I’m proud of Kelly Clarkson and all the other people who have found the courage to leave.
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