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Kelly Clarkson Is ‘Weighing Her Options’ Amid Talk Show Renewal: ‘She’s Just Tired of the Grind’
If you’re ever on a New York City subway and spot a young mother who looks a little familiar, take a closer look.
“Yeah, the subway’s just faster! So, we’re on it all the time,” Kelly Clarkson, 42, confessed to AP recently. “I usually am in a mom bun, or a hat and I get away with it. It’s only when I speak — as soon as I open my mouth to speak is when people will go, ‘What?’ And then that’s what gives me away.”
The upbeat, Grammy-winning singer and TV personality, whose daytime talker, The Kelly Clarkson Show, has earned 22 Emmys, has achieved fame and career highs she never dared to dream of when she became American Idol’s inaugural winner at age 20. But these rewards have required personal sacrifice — and lately she’s been wondering if she can continue at this pace.
In March, Kelly, the mom of daughter River Rose, 10, and son Remington, 8, missed nearly two weeks of shows due to a “personal matter” having to do with her family. There has also been talk that when Kelly’s contract with the show, which she also executive produces, ends next year, she may not renew it.
“She plans on fulfilling her obligation,” an insider exclusively notes to Closer. “What she’ll do when the actual contract is up seems to be the million-dollar question.”
Inside Kelly Clarkson’s Divorce
The past six years have been a whirlwind and an emotional roller-coaster ride for the Texas born and bred beauty.
“We have laughed together, we have cried together,” Kelly told her studio audience at the celebration of her show’s 1,000th episode in March. “I’ve [been] lost, alone, a lot… And along the way, we found comfort in one another.”
The Kelly Clarkson Show debuted on September 9, 2019, and continued to create new episodes through the difficult months of the COVID-19 pandemic by filming at Kelly’s homes in California and Montana.
The show also didn’t take a break after Kelly filed for divorce from Brandon Blackstock, the father of her two children and her then-manager, in 2020.
“The thing that’s been kind of hard to navigate is I am an open book,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “But at some point, I’m a mama bear more than I am a person in the public eye. So I care 100 percent more about my children than I do anything else on this planet.”
It took years to settle the divorce with lawsuits and hard feelings on both sides. In 2022, a court directed Kelly to pay Brandon a one-time fee of over $1.3 million, $45,000 a month in child support, and $115,000 a month in spousal support until January 31, 2024.
A year later, Kelly won a settlement of $2.6 million in back commissions from Brandon’s company after a court ruled that he should not have been making business deals as both her manager and her agent. There was an appeal but the two sides came to an undisclosed agreement and petitioned to have the lawsuit dropped.
“Her divorce was very traumatizing and she’s still not completely over it,” says the insider. “Her trust issues are something she’s working on regaining. Moving to New York was part of that healing process and it helped.”
Kelly has primary custody of the children, who have thrived in New York, but dealing with their father has been hard. Brandon recently attended a family wedding with River Rose, Remy and a new girlfriend.
“Kelly is still on bad terms with him and the rest of the family,” confides an insider.
Meanwhile, Kelly has only dipped her toes back into dating. “I get so nervous,” she said on her show, admitting that she’s not very good at small talk. “It’s the same things — ‘Where did you grow up?’… It’s not that I don’t think I’m a prize, I just find it awkward.”
Kelly “hasn’t had a lot of dates,” says the insider. “Honestly, she feels that there’s not enough time in the day.”
It’s doubly frustrating because Kelly feels like she also didn’t date much before meeting Brandon in 2012.
“Maybe I just haven’t done it enough,” she said on the show.
Although her marriage ended badly, being a wife and partner suited Kelly.
“She doesn’t necessarily need to have a man in her life, but she’d like one,” says the insider. “She misses the companionship, someone to share the highs and the lows of life with.”
Her existence today revolves around her children and her talk show.
“I love adventure, but I’m gonna be real with you — there’s not a lot of time for adventure, ‘cause I’m a single mom, so there’s not a lot of time,” she said on the show last May, explaining that she has a nanny who minds the kids only while Kelly’s at work. “When I get home, I’m just me, doing all the homework and the things,” she says.
This self-professed “mama bear” loves being hands on with her daughter and son. It’s little surprise that Kelly is a “fun” kind of mom.
“She plays games and takes them to events around the city,” the insider says. “They watch movies and cook together.”
Kelly Clarkson’s New Chapter
For the first time in the 23 years since she became a household name, Kelly’s beginning to contemplate a future with more time to herself.
“Kelly loves the crew, singing with her band, and interviewing guests — she’s just tired of the grind of a daily talk show,” explains the insider, who points out that if Kelly didn’t renew her contract, she’d “have time do more music, write songs, possibly even a Las Vegas residency.”
It would also open up the door to other unrealized dreams.
“She’d love to play the best friend of the main character in a romantic comedy, like a Reese Witherspoon film,” says the insider.
And then, there’s Kelly’s private life.
“She does have her moments of regret, that she should be spending more time with her children while they’re young,” says the insider. “Kelly has a very positive attitude, but it could be that she just realized how much time flies. So she’s weighing her options.”
Of course, it’s unlikely that NBC will let Kelly go without a very tempting offer to stay. Money, however, is not the star’s biggest concern.
“I don’t think Kelly is playing a money game with her bosses at NBC at all,” says the insider. “And she doesn’t want to seem ungrateful because the show has helped her in so many ways. It’s kept her busy and sane when she needed it most. I think it really is all about getting balance back in her life.”
It’s been said that NBC would at the very least try to convince the well-liked Kelly to return to host special events like Christmas at Rockefeller Center. A less regimented schedule would allow Kelly to make school runs for her kids, attend sporting events and visit her family and old friends more often.
She’d also like to have the time to pursue a new love — even though the idea scares her and her children.
“They’re young. It’s hard to picture their mom with someone else other than their dad,” she said during a radio interview last November. “I have expressed like, ‘Hey, I love you guys but Mommy needs loving too.’”
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