Kelly Clarkson has only realised how much of an emotional impact her absentee father had on her since she became a mother.

Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson

The 33-year-old singer has revealed her hit 2015 song 'Piece By Piece' was inspired by her difficult relationship with her dad Stephen Clarkson, who divorced her mother Jeanne Ann when she was just six.

Kelly - who has an older brother and sister and two younger half-siblings - decided to write the raw track after watching her husband Brandon Blackstock care for their 20-month-old daughter River Rose and realising just what she missed out on in her own childhood.

In an interview with Ryan Seacrest for his radio show, she said: "Watching my husband love on his daughter all the time, you know, go to her events and just be there and, like, be present is, like, hard to watch but beautiful to watch. I know that my kids are going to have that ... I don't even think I understood the gravity of (my relationship with my father) until I was pregnant. I was like, 'I cannot imagine not seeing this kid to his or her full potential and just seeing what she's going to do, what she's going to be like.' ... I don't think I knew how much that affected me until writing 'Piece By Piece'. I definitely didn't know how it would affect me like it does when I sing it live because that's not fun. It's awesome, but it's kind of sad that so many relate to this song."

However, the former 'American Idol' winner - who is currently pregnant with a baby boy - is adamant she doesn't hold a grudge against her father for the way her childhood was and after trying to repair their relationship she accepts that there's nothing worth salvaging between them.

She said: "I'm 33 years old, I'm a grown woman. But it's more of that thing where you can try your hardest to salvage relationships - and I did - but at the end of the day, if you keep getting hurt by someone because they just don't know how to properly love people, it's just not worth it. It's not worth the strain in your heart and it starts to bleed into your other relationships and it becomes super dysfunctional."

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