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Why Kelly Clarkson Once Had to Wear an Eye Patch on Her Talk Show
Clarkson explained why she was channelling a pirate on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
For several days during September 2020, it appeared that Kelly Clarkson was going pirate-mode on both The Voice and The Kelly Clarkson Show, wearing an eye patch with every outfit. Now, find out the story behind her injury.
At the time, Clarkson was a Coach on The Voice, and after a "long shoot," she was walking through Universal Studios, where the show is taped, and there was dust in the air. "I'm highly allergic to dust," Clarkson explained on California Live.
"Something got in there, something cut [my eye]...it got infected...it looked like Hitch," said Clarkson, referring to the 2005 romantic comedy in which Will Smith's character has an allergic reaction to seafood and his face swells up. While her eye healed, Clarkson wore the patch.
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Kelly Clarkson did not love wearing an eye patch on TV
Clarkson explained that right after getting the patch, she had "a full day" of shooting The Voice — it was a Battles episode — and her outfit had already been chosen and approved: All black. "I looked like an assassin," the singer joked, adding that fellow The Voice alum Gwen Stefani was compassionate.
The "Because of You" hit-maker also revealed some behind-the-scenes knowledge that explained her on-again, off-again relationship with the eyepatch. While she was recovering, she said, "We did six shows [of The Kelly Clarkson Show] total. We did two shows a day, three days I had to wear a patch. Those are not consecutive."
Episodes don't necessarily air in the order they are filmed, so if you notice a haircut or a tan line coming and going, that's why. But those things aren't as easy to spot as a full-on eye patch. It was far longer than three days that Clarkson appeared to be adding and removing the patch willy-nilly.
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It seems that Clarkson's infection was bad enough that she needed a tightly fitted patch to keep anything from getting into her eye, but for a more minor infection, stars can always try the Zac Efron trick: sunglasses.
While promoting The Iron Claw, Efron appeared on The Kelly Clarkson show in shades because of a minor infection, an accessory that both concealed his eye and, coincidentally, made him look super cool. Not that pirates can't be cool, too, especially when the pirate is Kelly Clarkson.
