Kelly Clarkson Had to Sing 'I Will Always Love You' Moments After Her Divorce Was Finalized: 'Screw You Universe'

Kelly Clarkson put on a brave face the day she received word that her divorce from ex-husband Brandon Blackstock was finalized.

The "Mine" singer, 41, revealed in an interview with Andy Cohen for a SiriusXM Town Hall special that before she sang "I Will Always Love You" as a tribute to Dolly Parton at the 57th ACM Awards in March 2022, she was dealing with some personal turmoil behind the scenes.

"I'm looking at Dolly Parton and I'm like, I had just gotten my text of like, 'Hey, your divorce is final, like you’ve both signed,'" she recalled. "Like, right before getting on a stage to sing 'I Will Always Love You.' I was like, 'Screw you, universe.' That's the timing?"

Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock in June 2020 after seven years of marriage, and the split was settled in March 2022. The former couple share daughter River Rose, 9,  and son Remington Alexander, 7.

When Cohen quipped that she'd have been better off singing something like "Since U Been Gone," The Kelly Clarkson Show host — who will release her new album Chemistry on Friday — agreed she’d rather "not sing something like" Parton's 1974 classic.

"What I do think, though, and I'm thankful for, is that was such a huge moment for me personally going on that nobody knew about that it kind of distracted me from the moment," she said. "So whenever I got through it and I got off stage and I was like, 'That didn't suck.' It wasn't Whitney Houston or Dolly, but it didn't suck."

Clarkson said her confidence was boosted further by a text from pal Chris Stapleton, which made her so happy she screenshotted it.

"Chris Stapleton texted me after that performance and was like, just so complimentary of that performance and it just made me feel really special that someone I admire and had admired for years, even before he came on the scene in a big way…," she said. "It just made me feel really good. I don’t think he even knows, but that made me feel really special because it's such a big play."

The three-time Grammy winner will chronicle the demise of her marriage on her new album Chemistry, which she said in March lays bare "the arc of an entire relationship."

"I just feel like chemistry is a beautiful and amazing thing, but it's powerful for the good and the bad. Makes you do stupid stuff," she said in an interview last month with TalkShopLive.