Days after Kelly Clarkson shocked her fans when she filed for divorce from her husband of nearly seven years, Brandon Blackstock, she is opening up in a candid new interview about her struggles with being body-shamed in the entertainment industry.

The 38 year-old singer told Glamour Unfiltered that she felt “more pressure” in the industry when she was thin because she felt that the focus on her body image was a distraction from her music.

“I felt more pressure from people actually when I was thin, when I was really thin and not super healthy because I just was worn out, just working so hard and not keeping healthy habits,” Clarkson said. “But I felt more pressure.”

Clarkson became an overnight sensation when she won the first season of “American Idol” back in 2002. While this was a dream come true, it quickly turned into a nightmare when she found herself being body-shamed by others who were using extreme measures to stay thin. She recalls being shown photos of naked women on magazine covers and being told, “This is what you’re competing with and we’ve got to compete with it.”

“I fought more when I was thinner than I do now, because now I just walk in and I just look at them like, ‘I dare you to say something. I’m happy in my life. I’ll work on me in my time!’” Clarkson said.

Clarkson also associates being at a heavier weight with moments of success in her career. She saw herself as heavier when she won “American Idol,” and she was at her heaviest when she was hired as a judge on “The Voice.”

“Honestly, at my heaviest point, I was hired to be on ‘The Voice.’ I got on the number one television show at my heaviest point, because it was right after I had kids and it was like they didn’t care,” she explained. “It had nothing to do with my sex appeal or my look aesthetically. It had to do with me as a person. I think it’s really up to artists to force people to have that mentality.”

This comes after a source told Entertainment Tonight that Clarkson decided to file for divorce from Blackstock after she realized how unhappy she was with him during quarantine.

“Kelly and Brandon had been having problems for several months and were making a conscious effort to work things out. They both hoped quarantining away from L.A. in Montana would help them work things out in their marriage, but instead the change in environment was actually detrimental,” the source said.

“The constant time together seemed to make an already challenging situation worse,” the insider continued, adding that Clarkson’s career “definitely helped to keep her mind off things, but this recent downtime gave her the time she needed to think about her life and her marriage.”

The insider went on to add that, “Kelly knew she just needed to follow her heart and finally realized divorce was her only option.”