“I mean, it’s no secret,” Clarkson, 38, said. “My life has been a little bit of a dumpster … personally, it’s been a little hard the last couple months.”

“I’ve been talking to friends that have been through divorce,” she continued. “I don’t know how people go through that without having some kind of outlet because it is the worst thing ever for everyone involved.”

Naming “irreconcilable differences” Clarkson filed for divorce from Brandon Blackstock in June; she’s requesting joint custody of their two children, River Rose, 6, and son, Remington, 4.

Clarkson says that the split is factoring into her next record, which she says will “probably be the most personal one I’ve ever released.”

“The whole record is basically every emotion you experience from the beginning of a relationship to the end of what it is now or where it is now,” she added, “and it’s been very therapeutic for me.”

“There’s one that my kids sing in the car,” Clarkson also said. “I’ve never written about my life to where my kids are singing along.”

Clarkson says that winning a Daytime Emmy Award in June for her eponymous talk show — for which she thanked Blackstock — was a bright spot for her this summer.

“I totally forgot that the Emmys were on … My executive producer Alex calls me and is, like, ‘You are the best host.’ And I was, like, ‘Thank you.’

“And I was having kind of a hard week, and I literally almost started crying.”

Clarkson’s TV career will be taking her full circle this fall when she serves as a judge on the upcoming season of “The Voice,” and fills in for Simon Cowell as he recovers from his bike accident.