It’s time for her to “Breakaway” from LA.
Kelly Clarkson is happy to be moving her eponymous talk show to New York City after finding Los Angeles to be “lonely” after her divorce from Brandon Blackstock.
“I think COVID pointed out a lot of things. A lot of us didn’t make it relationship-wise,” Clarkson said on the “Today” show Thursday, referencing her and Blackstock’s 2020 divorce.
“Also it just proved I’ve never really liked living in LA.”
The “Kelly Clarkson Show” host, 41, added that Los Angeles was “never her thing” in the 20 years she’s been there.
“I never wanted to live there in the first place,” she said, noting that she felt isolated from her family and closest friends.
“It was just me and my kids all the way on that coast. All my family lives on this coast,” she said of the East Coast. “So it just got lonely.”
And the “Stronger” singer said that she has been “honest” about her negative feelings.
“I’m lonely there. Not as in, like, ‘I need a boyfriend’ kind of thing. Lonely as in, like, you miss your family, you miss just having any family, or that kind of relationship,” she said.
Fortunately, Clarkson’s talk show is moving from LA to the Big Apple for its renewed season, NBC confirmed in May.
Clarkson previously addressed how excited she is to move across the country.
“We go nowhere in LA. I came here and this is what won me over,” she said in a SiriusXM Town Hall with Andy Cohen on Wednesday. “I came here and I was like, ‘Why have I never lived here?’ I know why. My ex does not like living in a city like this, but I just never had done it.
“I literally called one of the [network] heads and was like, ‘Listen, my life has been a dumpster fire and I’m really unhappy in LA and I don’t know if I’ll continue in LA. What are our thoughts about possibly moving this to New York?’”
Clarkson said NBC was “highly supportive” of her decision to move her show to the East Coast and that her and Blackstock’s two children — daughter River, 9, and son Remington, 7 — were also supportive.
“I take the subway. My kids love it. They get so angry when we get in a vehicle and so they love the subway because they feel independent,” she told Cohen.
“But anyway, I love the walking around. This city, that’s the thing that attracts me most is that everybody here has their own life, supportive of people, but not living vicariously through your life.”
Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock, 46, in June 2020 after nearly seven years of marriage. The exes had a bitter divorce battle and didn’t reach a settlement until two years later.
Last week, the “American Idol” alum admitted she stayed in her marriage much longer than she should have because she didn’t want to feel like a failure.
“When you’re in it … I’m like, ‘I can do this,’” the musician told host Glennon Doyle on the “We Can Do Hard Things” podcast. “I can handle so much. 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. And it becomes a little bit of your ego that gets in the way.”
In the end, she had to do what was best for herself so that she could be a better mother.
“I can say that after [the divorce], I’m a far better mother. Because I think when you’re honest with yourself, you’re able to be honest with others,” she said.
