Kelly Clarkson opened up about the end of her marriage on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast Tuesday (June 13th).  The singer and pop star revealed that she stayed in her ‘limiting’ marriage to Brandon Blackstock because of her ego.

She told Glennon Doyle, “When you’re in it … I’m like I can do this. I can handle so much. I can control my actions. I can control my reactions. I can do this and I can reach this person and I can get through. And it becomes a little bit of your ego that gets in the way.”

She added that she also avoided splitting with the father of her children because she didn’t want her kids to experience a painful divorce like she did when she was younger.

“You have to think about all of those things and you play it out differently in your head too. You try so hard and you think, ‘I do not want to do that to her, I don’t want to do that to him’ — that you never start thinking about yourself. That’s why sometimes to be selfish was important to me.”

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