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In March, 2022 Kelly Clarkson finalized her divorce from Brandon Blackstock, after a lengthy legal battle. This year Kelly released her tenth studio album Chemistry and relocated her daytime show from LA to New York City. She’s been busy. With The Kelly Clarkson Show returning this week, post-WGA strike (more on that later), Kelly is talking about the need for starting fresh in a new place and falling in love with NYC:

A fresh start: “At this point, I’m 40 years old. Mama rented something nice!” Clarkson says with a laugh, sitting at a studio just blocks away from her talk show’s new home in 30 Rockefeller Plaza. “I was like, ‘I’m not living here unless it’s right by the park and really nice for the kids.’” Clarkson shares two children with ex-husband Brandon Blackstock: River Rose, 9, and Remington, 7. The pair split in 2020 and finalized their divorce last year, which was partly what prompted the change of address. “I’ll be real honest: I thought I was making a horrible decision.” Clarkson says of her apprehension before the move. “I knew I needed a fresh start and couldn’t be in LA. I really wanted to be in Montana, but you can’t really do a show from there quite yet. So I was like, ‘The only other option would probably be New York.’” After just a few weeks, she’s sold on the city: “I genuinely love it, and I love that my kids love it.”

Her first NYC show had an audience of doormen: Taping her Season 5 premiere last Wednesday, Clarkson received a rambunctious New York welcome from an audience entirely comprised of apartment and hotel doorpeople (the city’s “unsung heroes,” as she explained). Throughout the episode, she spotlighted Lenny Faverey, a TikTok-famous “dancing doorman;” Correll Jones, a beloved longtime greeter at 30 Rock; and Noel Maguire, a Park Avenue doorman who started a foundation to help the city’s unhoused population.

She made a hard decision and owned it: Daytime programs such as “The View” and “The Drew Barrymore Show” also earned scrutiny last month, after resuming taping before the Writers Guild of America strike ended. As a songwriter, Clarkson could understand what the Hollywood writers were fighting for, having witnessed firsthand the negative impact of streaming and artificial intelligence on the music industry. That’s why it was important for her to shut down production when the strike began in early May. “I felt in my gut, ‘This is what we should do,’ so we made the decision as a team to end Season 4 and stand with them,” Clarkson says. “I had a lot of hard conversations with people like, ‘Hey, we don’t know if the show is going to make it if you don’t come back.’ But that’s gotta be the hard decision, and it sucks. I don’t think people realize, with a lot of the people that got blowback, the stress of that decision.”

Smiling and actually meaning it: Through the last four seasons of her daytime show, “full disclosure, I put on a smile a lot of those times because I was struggling a lot in my personal life,” Clarkson says. “I’ve learned a lot about what I’m capable of handling, and also what you should not handle. That was me saying ‘bye’ to ‘The Voice’ and having this big move. I love that family, but I was like, ‘I’m struggling. I can’t smile anymore. I don’t feel like smiling.’ What’s cool for me with Season 5 is I am in such a great place, not only with my kids, but with me personally and with the show,” Clarkson continues. “I feel like a weight has lifted. That move was very needed. I think the thing I’m most excited about with Season 5, on a selfish level, is just showing up to work smiling and actually meaning it. That’s a beautiful gift that you don’t realize until you’re out of it.”

[From Yahoo! Entertainment]

I hope you’re listening, Drew Barrymore, because that is what it means to own a decision. It was very nice of Kelly to try and make Drew sympathetic by saying it was a stressful decision. But Kelly handled the strike situation with twice the grace despite only being a public figure for half as long as Drew. To be fair, we’re obviously not privy to what goes on behind the scenes. Kelly maintains a lot of goodwill from the public, even when her show was hit with toxic workplace allegations earlier this year. People tended to make a point of separating Kelly from the accusations, going so far as to say they believed she knew nothing of what was going on. That being said, executive producer Alex Duda was cited in those allegations and is very much still with the show.

As for starting anew in New York City, I too fell in love when I moved here as a fresh-faced college student. But if I had to do it all over again, I would do it rich like Kelly, so I could get myself some nice digs as well. I don’t even need/want a place in Manhattan anymore, I’m just hoping to hang on in my Queens neighborhood! The only thing I don’t understand is: why is Kelly renting instead of buying?