Kelly Clarkson's siblings and the heartbreaking story behind her relationship with them

When Kelly Clarkson's parents divorced when she was six years old, she didn't just have to adapt to life with only her mother caring for her, but she suddenly had to grow up in a home without her siblings.

The 'Stronger' hitmaker's mom, Jeanne, and dad, Stephen, split and while Kelly remained in Texas, her father moved away, as did her brother, Jason, and sister, Alyssa.

"We didn't grow up together at all, because of the divorce," Kelly said in an interview with SiriusXM. "My sister grew up with my aunt and uncle in North Carolina and my brother grew up with my dad in California and I grew up in Texas with my mom."

Kelly had a strained relationship with her father who she eventually became estranged from. They weren't able to make amends before he died.

Fortunately, Kelly did go on to forge a relationship with her siblings despite not knowing them when she was young.

You may also like

"The year before I actually auditioned for Idol, my brother got married in Alaska and we all met up there and it was kind of then that we kept in contact," she said.

Although they barely knew one another, they bonded quickly. "Which is really weird if you saw them — we’re exactly the same. It’s like we grew up together, it’s really weird."

Jason appeared in the 2006 music video for Kelly's hit, 'Walk Away' and at one point, Kelly said they all lived near one another on her land.

"We have a lot of land, we all live on the same land," Kelly explained. "My land kind of slopes — I live up on the top part, my brother lives at the way bottom, and my sister lives on the side. It’s cool though!"

Kelly - who also has two younger half-brothers from her father's second marriage - used her complicated relationship with her dad as inspiration for her song 'Because of You'.

"It's about the cycle of families," she revealed. "Like you act how your parents acted towards you and then your kids act how you acted towards them, and it's all about breaking that cycle if it was a bad one.

"It's very close to home [for me]. I OK'd it with my family and everything because they think it's important, because we're obviously very different now than we were when we were younger."

Kelly is now a mom to two children herself. She has gone through a divorce from Remy and River's dad, Brandon Blackstock, but they are now successfully co-parenting. 

Speaking about being vulnerable in front of her children, she told People: "I think the most important thing I've learned in therapy, especially through this divorce, is 'Don't hide everything from your kids.' 

"Obviously, don't talk about stuff that you shouldn't talk about, but it's okay if they see you cry, or it's okay if they see you've had a bad day."

She added: "You start to feel that kind of shame, like, 'I've got to put my best foot forward as a mom because I don't want them to be affected.' But then you allow your kids to express empathy, and they learn how to say, 'Oh, man, I'm sorry you had a hard day.'"

Get the lowdown on the biggest, hottest celebrity news, features and profiles coming out of the U.S.  Sign up to our HELLO! Hollywood newsletterand get them delivered straight to your inbox. 

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qbHLpaammZeWx6q6xGeaqKVfnbKiuNOhmKeckpqutsDYaKSorJiav26tzZ1km5mSrnx2fJVqb3Bnm5q5rcWMnKOaqpuovK950qKZpaGenMButMSaqa2aopqurLXNoGSsrJ%2Bnxm6%2BxKWYraGfo8Cptc9mmaunpJ2ys3nSoqqtnaJk