Kelly Clarkson appeared to be holding back tears as she reflected on her own pregnancy challenges in a recent discussion about Arizona’s near-total ban on abortion.
The emotional moment took place during Monday’s episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, which featured former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a guest.
Although Clinton’s appearance was timed to promote Suffs, a new Broadway musical she’s producing, her chat with Clarkson took a more serious turn when the pair addressed an Arizona Supreme Court ruling last week that permits a 150-year-old law criminalising almost all abortions to take effect.
It was then that Kelly shared that she’d been hospitalised during both of her pregnancies, and even thought about her possible death.
“I have been pregnant twice, hospitalised both times,” she explained. “Literally I asked God ― this is a real thing ― to just take me and my son in the hospital the second time, because I was like, ‘It’s the worst thing’.”
Watch a clip from Monday’s episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show via E! News below:
After Kelly noted that she’s “so glad” she decided to have children, she denounced government officials who would restrict others’ ability to make that choice for themselves.
“The fact that you would take that away from someone, that can literally kill them,” she said. “The fact if they’re raped by their family member and they have to – it’s just insane to me.”
Clinton, meanwhile, described the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision as “horrifying”.
“The danger to women’s lives as well as to our right to make our own decisions about our bodies and ourselves is so profound,” she said. “There’s a kind of cruelty to it. I mean, no exceptions for rape, incest ― I mean, really?”
Kelly shares a nine-year-old daughter, River Rose, and an eight-year-old son, Remington Alexander, with ex-husband Brandon Blackstock.
Though she’s generally steered clear of politics in her music and on her talk show, Kelly has previously opened up about the challenges she experienced during her pregnancies.
Appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2013, she said that she was vomiting “a good dozen times a day” while pregnant with her daughter. Two years later, she said she became so dehydrated while expecting her son that she had to “get IVs and fluids”.
