After a busy December taping her talk show and promoting her latest Christmas single, Kelly Clarkson was ready for a long winter break away from work and surrounded by family. But on January 25, 2025, the original “American Idol” winner revealed that she wound up “miserably sick” with walking pneumonia for nearly her entire vacation.
Laughing about the ordeal, Clarkson told her social media producer at “The Kelly Clarkson Show” what happened and their chat was posted to the show’s Instagram account on January 25. After spending her winter break mostly alone at her Montana ranch, Clarkson admitted how good it felt to be back filming in her New York studio.
“I think I was so sick over break that I’m just so excited humans are here,” she laughed. “My family really didn’t want to be around me too much in the holidays because I was so sick and nobody wanted it, so I was alone a lot. It was good, but it was a little isolating.”
Kelly Clarkson Spent Winter Break Sick Her at Montana Ranch
When the social media manager at Clarkson’s talk show asked whether her holidays were good, Clarkson responded in the posted video, “Well, I’m gonna be real with you. I had walking pneumonia my whole vacation. Yeah, I was really sick my whole winter break.”
Walking pneumonia is a widely-used term for “atypical pneumonia,” according to the Cleveland Clinic, which describes the condition as a “very contagious” but mild lung infection that can come with symptoms including a sore throat, extreme fatigue, chest pain, a low-grade fever, mild chills, headaches, and a cough.
“I got better just in time to come back to work, so, I guess (that’s) a positive there,” Clarkson smirked.
The three-time Grammy winner spent her break at her Montana ranch, which she featured in the music video for her 2024 holiday single “You For Christmas.” She said that, even sick, there was no place she would have rather been.
“It was good because if you’re that miserably sick but you’re in the most magical place called Montana, and it’s snowing and there’s a fire, my dogs are there,” she mused, adding that she also had a lot of alone time without her kids — daughter River, 10, and son Remington, 8 — whom she shares with ex-husband Brandon Blackstock.
“Actually, my kiddos went on a bit of a vacation with their dad, so I was alone,” she said in the video. “It’s kind of nice to have that time, I had a hot toddy and I was fine, I was fine.”
Kelly Clarkson Says She Feels Like Her ‘Energy is Up’ in 2025
GettyThough Clarkson had little to no energy over the holidays, returning to her talk show in New York, where she moved with her kids in 2022, has her pumped up for the new year.
“Coming back, it’s been really fun being in the studio,” she said. “I feel like my energy is up in 2025, but I feel like the audience has been crazy since we’ve been back. Like, very excited!”
As for the chilly climate, Clarkson said, “I’m used to the cold. If I’m not here, I’m in Montana and it’s like negative 11 there right now.”
To get through the winter nights, Clarkson and her kids have been cozying up to binge the “Harry Potter” movies, she said in the Instagram video. When they go to bed and she has “a little mom time,” Clarkson said, she’s been catching up on the PBS series “Miss Scarlet,” about a female detective in Victorian-era London.
“Yeah, I’m into that,” she said.
All-new episodes of “The Kelly Clarkson Show” are scheduled for the week of January 27, with guests including singer-songwriter Julia Michaels, “Nashville” alum Charles Esten, and “Outlander” star Sam Heughan on Monday’s show.
Comments
Kelly Clarkson Returns to Show After Pneumonia Diagnosis: ‘Miserably Sick’