Kelly Clarkson Says Friendships With Other Women ‘Really Helped’ Her Work Through Brandon Blackstock Divorce
06.06.2022 - 18:17
/ usmagazine.com
Let’s hear it for the girls. Kelly Clarkson bonded with The Chicks over their respective divorce experiences — and close female friendships were the musicians’ common thread.
The 40-year-old American Idol alum sat down with Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer during the Monday, June 6, episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show. While discussing how songwriting helped each of them work through their breakups, the Voice coach posed a candid question.
“So, we all went through divorces,” Clarkson began. “How did you each find strength? And not just music, I think it’s therapeutic. But, like, your female friendships? I feel like that has really helped me.”
Maguire, 52, turned to Maines, 47, sharing a memory from working on a record amid their separations. Both members of the country trio have been married and divorced twice: Maguire to Ted Seidel from 1995 to 1999 and to Gareth Maguire from 2001 to 2013, and Maines to Michael Tarabay from 1997 to 1999 and Adrian Pasdar from 2000 to 2019.
“I remember when you first came down into the studio in Nashville and said, ‘Guys, I just want to tell you I’m getting a divorce,'” Martie recalled, as the Texas native interjected with a laugh, “Which time was this?”
Martie clarified that it was Maines’ first divorce, continuing, “I remember thinking, ‘Well, I’m getting a divorce. Now she says she’s getting a divorce. Now I can’t say I’m getting a divorce.’ … I was feeling like everybody was gonna judge me because I thought I was first.”
The Berklee College of Music alum chimed in, “So I was like, ‘Guys, I’m getting a divorce.’ And Martie’s like, ‘I’m having a horrible marriage!’ … We were divorce buddies.”
Us Weekly confirmed in June 2020 that Clarkson split from husband Brandon Blackstock a