Kelly Clarkson made sure her ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, wasn’t blindsided by her biting divorce album, “Chemistry.”
The 41-year-old songstress revealed on Thursday’s episode of “Today” that she and Blackstock had “a little text exchange” about the album before its release on Friday.
“I don’t even remember why or how it happened, but I was like, ‘Hey, I didn’t just diminish us down to one [thing],'” she explained.
“‘You know what I’m saying? It’s all in there, the ride. The beauty is in there, as well. Now there’s a lot of pain, but that’s what happens for all of us.'”
While Clarkson recognized that Blackstock probably won’t be listening to the scathing album, she did hold back a little for the sake of their children.
“It’s very personal. And I’ve always released personal music — I think I’m that kind of writer in general, everybody knows that,” she said.
“I think when you have kids … you kind of debate, ‘What am I going to do here?’ So I was very selective about the songs I picked for the album.”
Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock in June 2020 after seven years of marriage. The pair — who share daughter River Rose, 9, and son Remington Alexander, 7 — finally settled their split in March 2022 after two years of court battles.
During that time, the “Because of You” singer started writing “Chemistry.” However, she had to sit with the songs for nearly three years before she was ready to share them with the world.
“I waited until I was like through it. So now it’s like a different chapter for me,” she explained. “So I had to wait in order to put this out, so that I could have interviews and just honestly so I wouldn’t be crying in all of them. It’s very intense going through that kind of loss, it’s grief.”
Earlier this week, Clarkson told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that she “did not handle [the divorce] well” — despite trying to put on a happy face.
“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.”
Clarkson recalled often “crying so hard” that she “couldn’t even speak” while processing the fact that their marriage had failed.
Although the talk show host has had time to heal, she is “not looking” for love any time soon.
