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Kelly Clarkson is ready for a fresh new start. The talk show maven and hitmaker, 41, revealed in a new interview why she’s heading to New York City with her kids and her eponymous show. “I love this question because I haven’t actually been able to talk about this a lot,” she told Nancy O’Dell during a Thursday, May 25 appearance on TalkShopLive. “I was like, ‘You guys’…and it was through tears, cause I have built such an amazing group of people.
“Obviously, we’ve been very successful, and I love everybody I work with, and we have such great relationships,” she continued. “So I talked to them because I was like, ‘Guys I need you to know what’s happening. It’s either I’m not going to be able to continue with the show, or I got to go East Coast.’”
Kelly went on to explain that her extended family is back East — a fact that became even more painfully apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic years. “Covid pointed out being isolated and so far from your family is not good for anyone,” she said. “And my family is East Coast — they’re North Carolina-based. So it was one of those things where I just had to — also there was a lot of personal things going on, too.”
Those “personal” things likely include her 2020 split from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock, with whom she shares two young children, River and Remington. The divorce wasn’t finalized until March of 2022, when the American Idol alum was ordered to pay her ex $45,600 per month in child support, and a whopping $115,000 per month in spousal support, per TMZ.
But there’s also the matter of being accused of a toxic work environment on the set of The Kelly Clarkson show — something she has called “untrue.” “I’m getting too old to work in an environment that isn’t healthy and fun,” she said during the interview. “I had to do that for years in meetings and working with really incredibly mean people sometimes, so I just didn’t want to do that anymore. I’m focused wholly on the talk show for a minute, but I also am working on things in the background.”
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