After two decades, American Idol alum Kelly Clarkson has called out the show for ‘lying’ in a surprise conversation during the latest episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show.
The revelation came during a conversation with Rob Rausch when they were discussing his Love Island payment which he is still waiting for.
“You know what, I relate to this!” Kelly said. “I relate to this so hardcore. You probably weren’t alive when I was on American Idol but I was literally on the show.
© Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via G“And they were like, ‘Oh, you win a million dollars,’ or whatever. No, you didn’t. They lied. It was, like, a million dollars worth of investment in you.”
“And then they said you get a car. And I needed it because my car was bashed in and I couldn’t afford the deductible. And then – no! I did not get a car,” Kelly continued.
© Getty Images“And then Clay Aiken, who didn’t win the second season, got a car and his mom!” she added leaving the audience in disbelief.
“‘I was like, ‘What the f***!'”
“I remember Clay telling me that the second season. He’s like, ‘Yeah, they gave my mom one.’ I was like, I”m gonna actually kick your a** right now.'”
© Getty ImagesGuest Daniel Radcliff also weighed in: “There should be some system where if you win something on the first season of something, whatever the prize has become, you should retroactively get that.”
Kelly then added: “No, it was supposed to be the prize then, okay? It was supposed to be the prize then!”
The Kelly Clarkson Show will come to an end in the fall of 2026, after seven seasons on the air, with Kelly sharing that she was still coming to terms with leaving her talented team.
“My first thought is as a mom, obviously, so that was basically why the decision was made,” she shared on SiriusXM Hits 1’s The Morning Mashup. “Seven years, that’s a long time. My kids have grown up in that.”
© Getty“I think anytime there’s job loss, you know, and all these people are talented and A-list and they’re going to [be] fine, but I think that’s the thing that kind of got me that was hard for me,” she continued.
“But at the same time, it had to be a family decision that we had to do, and it’s already hard enough just to be an artist in that schedule and have a family, and then do the talk show and have a family, so it’s a lot on the plate.”
Kelly shared her kids, River, 11, and Remy, nine, with the late Brandon Blackstock, who passed away in August 2025 after a lengthy battle with melanoma. Kelly and Brandon were married for nine years before they finalized their divorce in 2022, during which time Brandon also served as her manager.
