In Honor of Mother’s Day, former American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson released a new music video for her song “Meaning of Life”, the title track from the pop star’s eighth studio album. In addition to this new video, Clarkson is also a judge on the current season of The Voice on NBC, as well as hosting and performing at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday, May 20th at 8 p.m. ET. So what has being in the media spotlight since 2002 done for the star’s net worth?
Kelly Clarkson Net Worth As Of 2018: $28 Million
With eight albums and eleven singles on the top twenty on the Billboard Hot 100, three Grammy Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards, four American Music Awards, and two Academy of Country Music Awards, it’s not hard to see how Kelly Clarkson has risen to such a fortune over the years. Let’s recap her rise to stardom.
1982-2001
Kelly Clarkson was born on April 24, 1982, in Fort Worth, Texas, to Jeanne Ann and Stephen Michael Clarkson. Clarkson was brought up in a “highly conservative” Southern Baptist environment, going to church every week. Clarkson started singing in high school and found success singing in school musicals. Upon graduating, she was offered several music scholarships to colleges, but she turned them all down in order to pursue her music career on her own. However, her career wouldn’t take off as she had hoped and she was rejected by multiple record labels.
2002-2003
With no real musical prospects in sight for her, Clarkson was convinced by friends to audition for the inaugural season of American Idol in May 2002. Clarkson thrived on the show and after never being in the bottom three for the entire competition, she beat out Justin Guarini to win.
Following Idol, Clarkson was signed to a record deal with RCA Records and released her first double-A-side single, “Before Your Love”/”A Moment Like This”. The single debuted at 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 and would climb all the way to number one and would eventually become the top-selling single of 2002.
After this success, Clarkson released her debut album Thankful on April 15, 2003. The album would have critical and commercial success, debuting at number one, and going double platinum.
2003-2015
Over the next several years, Clarkson would continue her professional success, releasing six studio albums (Breakaway (2004), My December (2007), All I Ever Wanted (2009), Stronger (2011), Wrapped in Red (2013), Piece by Piece (2015)) and headlining seven tours.
In 2012, Clarkson would begin dating Brandon Blackstock, a son of Clarkson’s manager Narvel Blackstock. The two were later married on October 20, 2013, and would go on to have 2 children together, River Rose Blackstock in 2014 and Remington Alexander Blackstock in 2016.
2016-Present
In 2016 Clarkson’s interests began to really expand outside of music. in February of that year, HarperCollins announced that it had signed Kelly Clarkson to a book deal and her first children’s book, titled River Rose and the Magical Lullaby was released on October 4, 2016. Clarkson stated that she intended to write more children’s books in the future.
Clarkson also had acting roles as a voice in Sony Animation Picture’s The Star and in the Netflix animated series Home: Adventures with Tip & Oh.
On May 11, 2017, it was announced that Clarkson would join The Voice as a coach for the series’ fourteenth season, a position that she still holds today.
