Kelly Clarkson is in no hurry to get back into the dating scene.
On her NBC talk show, The Kelly Clarkson Show, the 41-year-old songstress opened up about life after her divorce from her ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock. In an episode that aired on Wednesday, December 20, Clarkson sat down with guest Shannen Doherty, who recently separated from her husband, Kurt Iswarienko.
Clarkson told Doherty, 52, that she heard she was “ready for love again,” which the Beverly Hills: 90210 alum confirmed.
“I am still in the stage of really enjoying me, so I’m not there,” Clarkson replied, noting that it’s hard to move on after thinking “you would spend forever with this person.”
Doherty said she was also “enjoying” time to herself.
“It’s been a very hard year for me and it was a very devastating thing to go through,” Doherty said. “There were some very shocking revelations.”
The actress filed for divorce from Iswarienko in April after 11 years of marriage. Earlier this month, she shared that before going into brain surgery as part of her cancer treatment, she discovered Iswarienko, 49, had been having an alleged affair.
Clarkson and Doherty commiserated about adjusting to single life and swapped anecdotes about how their lives have changed.
“We didn’t allow dogs in the bed because it was for fun … you know, that kind of fun,” the singer recalled of life with her ex-husband. “But ever since I’ve been separated, now divorced, my dogs have been, like, ruling my bed so I think that they would hate the next person that came in.”
Clarkson shared that one of her dogs in particular was a huge source of comfort after her split. “I would cry a lot, as you do when grief happens,” she said. “My dog Henry would come in and force his head under my arm and just sit there with me. And I was like, ‘Is there a man like this around?’”
Jokes aside, Clarkson concluded that she was content with “dog love” for the time being and was not in a rush to date again. “I think too that there’s a lot to learn about yourself in a relationship and how you are in a relationship,” she reflected. “I think I need a little more work on that end of it. I need a little more work on me in a relationship and how to make sure to take care of myself at the same time as somebody else.”
She added, “Also, I love me and I love spending time with me. It’s really great. It feels powerful.”
Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock in June 2020 after nearly seven years of marriage, Us Weekly confirmed at the time, citing “irreconcilable differences.” The former couple faced legal battles surrounding spousal support and custody of their two children before reaching a settlement in March 2022.
