Singer Kelly Clarkson's Life Has Been Beset By Tragedy

Jan 30, 2021 by apost team

Kelly Clarkson is one of the biggest pop stars we have today. Since she became the first artist to win the show "American Idol" in 2002, she is considered a musical powerhouse, inspiring both men and women worldwide.

While she has achieved a lot throughout the years, her path to stardom hasn’t been the smoothest. Clarkson has had to endure countless challenges that started when she was still a child in Texas. However, Clarkson has been resilient enough to weather all the storms she’s found herself in.

Kelly Clarkson’s Parents’ Divorce

When Clarkson turned 6 years old, her parents decided to split up. Unsurprisingly, that experience left a mark on her. She opened up about the divorce in her song “Because of You," which offers some insight into how she felt about the issue.

"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," Clarkson said during an interview with MTV News.

Although the song is not her happiest, the singer knew that the lyrics and sentiments would get across to her listeners. "It's one of those songs that everybody's kind of gonna relate to, but you're not happy about that," she added. "It's very close to home." Clarkson didn’t release the song before her family consented.

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After her parents’ divorce, the singer became closer to her mother. She even revealed that she had become estranged from her dad for a while. "I've never really been in touch with him," she said during an interview with Skavlan. Although people tend to feel sad for the musician when they learn about this, Clarkson doesn’t really show any signs of being bothered.

"I think if you don't grow up with it, it's hard to miss something you never had," she says. But that doesn’t mean the singer has not done anything to mend the issues in her family. "I definitely tried a few times in my life, and I did that more for my brother," she added. "He really is that kid that really wanted everybody to come together."

Today, Clarkson is worth millions of dollars, but she hasn’t always been a millionaire. During her early childhood, Clarkson came very close to poverty. 

"We lived, like, pre-paycheck to pre-paycheck," she said in an interview with CBS News. "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.'" This is probably the reason the award-winning singer hates it when people say that money doesn’t really buy happiness.

When the singer first attempted to get into "American Idol," she did not know exactly what she was auditioning for. All she wanted was to get involved in a gig that paid; she thought she would end up as a backup singer or something close to that.

"I didn't go into it thinking this would happen," she confessed to The Guardian. "I went into it thinking it might pay my electric bill." At the time, the young musician’s circumstances were dire; she had run into a catastrophe that had worsened her life.

"My apartment in LA burned down, and I had to move home," she added. "I had no money, and I had to sleep in my car for three days." Considering where she’s come from, Clarkson still doesn’t believe she ended up where she is today. 

"I work very hard, but I always wonder how in the world I got here," she continued.

After she won "American Idol," Clarkson was happy to get signed to a record deal. She was lucky to work with some of the biggest producers in the music industry, but some of them didn’t treat her kindly. For instance, the head of RCA back then, Clive Davis, told her that “Because of You” was a crappy song before a group of people.

"A group of men thought it was OK to sit around a young woman and bully her," she told Variety. "I was told I should shut up and sing."

Fame usually comes with many great things, such as admiration, influence and money. Unfortunately, it also attracts a level of public criticism for nearly everything you do. Clarkson learned about this firsthand, as many people were always picking her apart as soon as she became a celebrity.

"In my twenties, yes, I felt that pressure all the time," she said while speaking to CBS News. "Everybody always had something to say — musically, physically, what I was saying disappointed, whatever." The good thing is that by the time the artist reached her 30s, she had become accustomed to life and had learned to adjust. She knew how to be herself in all aspects of life. "You can either love it, or you don't have to," she continued. "There's plenty of other artists out there to love."

When she was just getting accustomed to fame, Clarkson was very slender, and she wasn’t doing alright.

Being thin had a lot of negative effects on the celebrity’s body. "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," she added.  In her view, she was slender because she was miserable.

While the artist was being trolled for being slender, adding weight didn’t help either. One of the most notable comments was made by Chris Wallace, a Fox News host. He once told the singer to “stay off the deep-dish pizza for a little while,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Clarkson responded by telling Redbook that, "It's when I'm fat that I'm happy. No one actually cares about your health. They just care about aesthetics." "People should just concentrate on their own lives and their own health and their own happiness, and whatever that looks like for you, be happy with it," she continued.

When Clarkson married Brandon Blackstock in 2013, she seemed very happy. Soon afterward, tabloids began sharing information about how some women had been with Blackstock behind her back. For instance, one woman claimed to have been intimate with the man, according to Daily Mail.

"We met at a golf club in TN and have exchanged multiple texts and hung out a few times. We haven't slept together but we've been intimate in other ways," the woman alleged.

Another woman claimed to have been intimate with Clarkson’s husband.

"It amazes me how manipulative this guy can be,” she said. “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." Clarkson responded through a tweet: "Keep hearing random rumors of me & Brandon splitting or that he's cheating on me. Stop with all the lying please."

In June 2014, Clarkson and Brandon Blackstock had their first child, River Rose. Of course, the couple was excited about their new baby. However, later on, Clarkson suffered from severe sickness during the pregnancy. "I got really sick to where I was losing weight at first," she told CBS News. "And then I got scared, you know, because I couldn't stop getting sick, non-stop."

At some point, Clarkson was hospitalized due to excessive vomiting. The good news is that all her pain and discomfort were relieved when her baby arrived safely. Two years later, Clarkson gave birth to Remington Alexander.

After having two uncomfortable pregnancies, Clarkson decided that her baby boy was going to be the last one. It may seem like a hard conclusion to make, but the artist’s decision seemed to be sensible and clear. The two pregnancies had been very difficult; she was always sick, and the fact that she even had to be hospitalized meant that her decision was probably well-founded.

Nonetheless, Clarkson still understood that other couples struggle with a lot of issues while trying to bring up their families, and she showed a lot of sympathy about it.

"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," she said.

Clarkson’s family went through a terrifying privacy invasion in 2017. Their home in Los Angeles was broken into very badly. While speaking with Extra, Clarkson said, "we got robbed last night. We got here and our whole house was like bashed in, it was crazy." The celebrity and her family were lucky not to have been around when the incident happened. All the same, Clarkson felt extremely violated by the entire experience.

"Materialistic things we didn't care about, [but] the guy was in our kid's room," she said. "So it was a little weird, [but] other than that everyone is safe and good."

Nonetheless, the singer seemed thankful that the burglary hadn’t been worse. She actually described it as a hiccup that wasn’t enough to destabilize their lives.

Granted, 2020 was not easy for most people, and Clarkson was among those who found it particularly tough. "I mean, it's no secret," she confessed to Today. "My life has been a little bit of a dumpster ... personally, it's been a little hard the last couple months."

Clarkson divorced Blackstock after being married to him for seven years. Obviously, it’s not easy to split up with someone you’ve stayed with for that long. The divorce devastated Clarkson, and she reached out for support as often as she could.

"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," she continued. In case you’re wondering, the main reason why Clarkson felt like she needed a divorce was what she termed as “irreconcilable differences.” As you will learn shortly, however, the main reason is very shocking. The artist was awarded primary custody of her kids.

Many people considered Clarkson and Blackstock a super-couple for a very long time. When Clarkson sought to separate with her husband in June 2020, many were shocked. It didn’t make sense why they should divorce after starting a family only a couple of years prior.

Us Weekly got access to some legal documents and revealed what was troubling the super-couple. Apparently, Clarkson sued Starstruck Management Group, the company that Blackstock’s father was running. She claimed that the company and her husband had “defrauded her out of millions of dollars.” It was alleged that Blackstock and his father are not licensed to be agents in California, meaning that their work had been invalid. Moreover, she claimed that the company and Blackstock had been imposing unusual fees on her.

Although the truth has not been determined yet, the whole thing has clearly cost Clarkson a lot of energy and stress. When people see Clarkson on TV, they likely see someone with a smooth, rosy life. However, as you’ve seen, the star has been through challenges that are enough to drive anyone crazy. But she has been strong and has shown us that there’s no reason why anyone should give up no matter what.

What do you think about the hardships Kelly Clarkson has faced? And don't forget to pass this story on to friends, family members and fellow Clarkson fans who might not know about her life story.