Kelly Clarkson has never held back in terms of talking about her divorce from Brandon Blackstock – which she filed for back in June 2020 and was completed in March 2022 – firstly in interviews, and then of course in her highly-anticipated new album Chemistry which was released last month.
And now, the 41-year-old American Idol alum has once again opened up about her “heartbreaking” divorce, telling fans that her mental health took a big hit while she and Blackstock were going through their divorce proceedings and that she “wouldn’t have made it” without the use of antidepressants. Poor Kelly!
Kelly Clarkson Opens Up About Taking Antidepressants
During an appearance on the Las Culturistas With Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang podcast on June 28th, the "Since U Been Gone" singer spoke about how the divorce affected her mental health. The Voice coach revealed that taking antidepressants, which she said she was initially reluctant to do because of her "own issues from childhood," turned out to be the "greatest decision ever."
"I am gonna be very honest right now and I have not owned this ever," the Kelly Clarkson Show host confessed on the podcast. "I looked at my therapist and I just couldn't stop sobbing, and I was like, 'I actually had to cancel something the other day because I couldn't stop crying. I cannot do this.'"
"It was one of those things where I really had to put my pride aside and like all my childhood issues," she continued, adding that she took common depression and anxiety medication Lexapro "for like, I think two months."
Kelly Said Taking Antidepressants Was The 'Greatest Decision Ever'
She added: "My thing was, I just can't smile anymore for America right now – I'm not happy and I need help, and it was one of the best lessons, because she kept trying to convince me, 'Girl, you're doing a lot,' and having to balance a lot and trying to put my best foot forward in front of my kids, I was like, 'I can't do it.'" However, she admitted that it was a "really good lesson in, 'You need to put your ego aside and handle this. Someone's trying to help you, listen.'"
"And it was honest to God, the greatest decision ever," she confessed. "I wouldn't have made it [without]. And then by the time you wean off of it, it's like 'OK, I handled what I couldn't handle then, and now I have time and space.'"
Kelly Clarkson Credits Therapy And Counseling
The "Mine" singer also opened up about therapy a few days earlier while speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, saying: "I don't know how people get through anything like that because I'm not going to say I did it gracefully. Behind closed doors by myself, it was not. Just to be brutally honest, I did not handle it well."
Kelly confessed that she and her now ex-husband went to marriage counselling to try "to make it work," although she said she "knew in my heart it just wasn't going to." Although it didn’t work for them as a couple, Kelly confirmed that therapy helped her personally, adding, "It's very helpful to have a trained professional that knows how to navigate you through rough seas. And it's a rollercoaster."
"You feel like you're going to mess up your children. You're going to mess up your whole life. Everything is so huge," she said. "And now three years later, even from separation, it's like, you know what? I was like, 'Yes, it is important. And yes, it was what it was. But at the end of the day, we're all fine. We're doing fine. Everybody's finding their own lane and we're figuring it out and it's going to be fine.'"
