Kelly Clarkson ‘Embarrassed’ About Emotional ‘American Idol’ Performance

After last week’s episode of American Idol, everyone was talking about Kelly Clarkson’s emotional performance of “Piece By Piece.”

Despite having nearly everyone, including Keith Urban and Jennifer Lopez, in tears, Clarkson credits her crying to something other than sadness.

“I came off almost in tears for a different reason because I was so embarrassed. I was like, ‘Oh, God. This is my final thing on Idol and I could not hold it together.’ I was almost losing it almost the entire song,” Clarkson said during a recent appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “I was proud of myself for making it as far as I did.”

Between having her husband and 20-month old daughter River Rose with her on set, and being pregnant with their second child, Clarkson knew the performance would be rough.

“I didn’t realize it was going to be that bad. And we were rehearsing that day and I just couldn’t get through it. My 1-year-old is running around the same hallway as I was at 19,” she told the talk show host. “[Brandon is] a great husband and a great father. And he was there, my little girl was there, my little boy was, like, turning circles in my stomach. It was nostalgic. It was the last time I was going to be on Idol and it’s ending. I was screwed from the get-go.”

Blaming her pregnancy hormones, she concluded: “Emotionally, I was on a slip-and-slide from hell.”

Watch Clarkson’s candid interview with DeGeneres below.