Kelly Clarkson opens up about talking to her children about coronavirus: ‘It’s overwhelming and scary’
Kelly Clarkson is sharing what life has been like for her during the coronavirus pandemic as she works remotely on her shows, The Kelly Clarkson Show and The Voice, while quarantining in Montana. And although it’s been a lot of work, she’s focused on the impact that this difficult time has had on her children, River Rose, 6, and Remington Alexander, 4, especially as she watches her youngest head back to school.
“I think we really forget how hard this is on [children],” she told the Los Angeles Times. “My kid has been in school now and he has been seeing other kids — his whole disposition has changed. There’s just a different lightness to him. It’s not Groundhog Day every day.”
While Remington headed back to the classroom, Clarkson’s daughter River is taking classes from home until October. Still, conversations with both of the kids regarding the new normal have been tough.
“It’s easy to tell adults — well, you think it’s easy to tell adults — ‘You need to do this, you need to do this in order to come to work and you can’t come if you don’t.’ But it’s harder to tell a 4- and 6-year-old — and then, without terrifying them, that it’s like the freaking apocalypse and they’re going to die if they take their mask off. It’s a really hard thing to navigate right now: to be honest with them but not so honest that it’s overwhelming and scary.”
When it comes to her own mental health throughout the pandemic, Clarkson says that she’s felt “surprisingly great,” although she’s had some darker moments — including a June divorce filing from husband Brandon Blackstock. She said that while having to produce a show for an audience that expects her to bring her usual positive energy, dealing with those times was especially tough.
“That was not fun,” she said of working on The Kelly Clarkson Show from Montana during the height of the pandemic. “I’m trying to smile and light up America’s life [and] I’m just wanting to drown myself in the creek next to me ... I do remember, right before then, I was like, ‘Look, at some point, people in the limelight are humans, too, and we’re all going through the same roller coaster as everyone else. So sometimes I don’t want to smile.’ I was honest about that.”
Since May, the singer has been back in her Encino, Calif., home and is now gearing up to return to set for a hybrid model of the talk show with both live and virtual interviews. With uncertainty still looming, she’s reminded herself that there will be good and bad days.
“It doesn’t matter who you are,” she said, “it’s all relative to your own world.”
For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDC’s and WHO’s resource guides.
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