When Kelly Clarkson [1] won the first season of American Idol [2] back in 2002, it should have been one of the happiest moments of the singer's life. Instead, the win — coupled with aggressive record labels — sent her reeling. In an interview with Good Housekeeping [3], the proud mom of daughter River Rose, 2, and son Remington [4] (who was born in April [5]) opened up about what it was really like back then and how incredible her life has become since starting a family with husband Brandon Blackstock [6].
- On turning down two record deals before winning American Idol: "They were like, 'You have to lose 20 pounds and basically sign your life away' — and I was small then, by the way. I don't want to start a relationship with somebody who says something like that. And this is my gift, and they wanted to take all the profit from me working my butt off. Why would I?"
- On why sudden fame isn't all it's cracked up to be: "I was in a very dark place for a long time. It's just so hard to have normalcy. I love to sing, and I love to talk to people at meet-and-greets. It's just all the crap that comes along with this job . . . I don't love traveling, because I'm never home. It's hard when you have a family."
- On how she makes her marriage work despite busy schedules: "We try our best. Brandon and I have a date night every night — we'll get the kids to bed and go out by the lake with a glass of wine, and the next thing we know, it's 2 A.M. We're tired in the morning, but we need that time to stay connected."
- On the empowerment she feels from being a mom: "I sound like such a tool, but becoming a mother has made me next-level confident. I've never felt more empowered. I feel like my 20s were spent walking on eggshells making sure everyone felt loved and not really expressing my opinion. As a mom, you just don't have time, so you get straight to the point."
- On what inspired her children's book, River Rose and the Magical Lullaby [7]: "I was on a flight back from London with River, and I thought about all the cool places she's been that she's not going to remember. I decided to write them into little stories that she could read about the time she was in Australia and met a kangaroo, or how I sang her lullabies each night."
