Kelly Clarkson's - Second Act

About To Launch A Tv Talk Show, The Superstar Singer Opens Up About Finding Confidence, Her Life As A Mom And Why She’s Nervous (In A Good Way)

- Janine Rubenstein

Kelly Clarkson just realized something. “I’ve never felt more like Mariah Carey,” she says, amused that she’s in a silk dress, getting her face powdered while lying across the back of a golf cart at her People photoshoot. “I need grapes and wine!” Unlike her more diva-tastic pop-star peer, “I never tend to look glamorous.” Minutes later she accidentally knocks over a cup of coffee and laughs. “The thing people say most about me is that I don’t act like a celebrity,” she says. Despite the billboard with her face on it a few feet away at Universal Studios in L.A., as far as she’s concerned, “I’m just normal.”

Now she’s getting ready for a new normal. Seventeen years after entering pop-culture history as the first winner of American Idol, the singer is taking on daytime TV, hosting NBC’s syndicated Kelly Clarkson Show, which debuts on Sept. 9. For the first time, she’ll be the one asking all the questions—and she’s not taking any chances. “I’ve literally watched every episode of Oprah and Ellen,” she says, “because I’m like, ‘I want to be good at it!’ ”