After taking a long-overdue hiatus, Kelly Clarkson returned to television Tuesday where she sat down with TODAY hosts Hoda Kotb to share details of her summer break.
During the interview, Clarkson revealed that she spent her three month summer break in Montana with her ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, and their two children, River and Remington. It was the first time since she was 16-years-old that the American Idol champ-turned-talk show host has had a summer break.
“I hadn’t had a minute and it’s obviously been a rough couple of years,” Clarkson said, referring to her highly publicized divorce from Blackstock. “So it was really important to me to, like, shut down for a minute.”
Despite the fact that Clarkson and Blackstock are no longer married, they spent the summer together in Montana so they could both spend time with their kids.
“The kids were with me and with their dad,” she said. “It was nice because they usually have to travel a lot because of our separation. So we were both in Montana. It felt kind of the first time—I think my kids felt—a little more centered as well. So it was nice.”
When asked how she spent her time while on summer break, Kelly replied, “I literally four-wheeled in the mountains….literally spent the whole summer in the mountains, just getting out in nature.”
Kelly Clarkson wed Brandon Blackstock in 2013, but filed for divorce in 2020 after 7 years of marriage. The divorce was finalized in August of 2021.
See Kelly Clarkson’s full TODAY interview below.