Kelly Clarkson and U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr. exchanged deeply personal experiences about parenting and getting through to their children with dyslexia in a recent conversation.
For the Jan. 22 episode of “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” singer and host sat down with the Irish musician and co-founder of the rock band to speak about a topic he’d spent “all my career, avoiding talking” about.
“I just don’t want to involve them,” Mullen said about having avoided opening up about his family. “And now here I am on your show.”
Mullen shares three children with his longtime partner, Ann Acheson: Aaron Elvis Mullen, who is 29; Ava Mullen, 26; and Ezra Mullen, 23.
Speaking to Clarkson, he explained how his eldest son’s journey led him to take on the role of producer for “Left Behind,” a documentary that follows six women who work together to create New York City’s first public school dedicated to children with learning challenges.
“I knew my son was dyslexic, but I really didn’t understand him, and it was difficult in the house, like I was away, coming home. He’s acting out, got the police at the house,” he shared during the interview.
He went on to express concern about how children with dyslexia, without the right support, can face challenges that may negatively affect their futures.
“My son is 29, and he went through a very rough time in school and got diagnosed late, and they didn’t have a system he could fit into,” he continued. “My son, I think, would have ended up in jail. I think that that’s terrifying.”
“It’s a really hard thing being a parent, especially a parent that doesn’t have dyslexia,” Clarkson added. “And you just try to talk to them or help them with homework or whatever, and you don’t really know what’s going on.”
She added, “It is about our kids first. But man, when you don’t have anyone to talk to (as a parent) and you’re just like, ‘I feel like I’m failing.’”
Clarkson is mom to River Rose, 10, and Remington Alexander, 8, and has spoken in the past about her daughter’s dyslexia.
In a previous episode of her show, the former “American Idol” winner shared that her daughter was “getting bullied at school for not being able to read like all the other kids.”
The Jan. 22 episode also included Naomi Peña, one of the six women featured in “Left Behind,” who serves as director of engagement for the Literacy Academy Collective. She appeared on the couch alongside Mullen to speak about the documentary and about her own experience as a mother to a child with dyslexia whose early symptoms saw him begin to get into trouble in school.
“I remember just sitting with him at the dinner table and going, ‘What is going on? Like, you’re a good kid. Every kid is a good kid. What is going on? I know you don’t like getting in trouble,’” she recalled. “And he tells me, ‘Mom, I don’t know what it is. It’s like there’s something in my brain that’s not letting me.’ And I took that as a call out for help, and I immediately took it as my marching orders. I needed to get to the bottom of it.”
Towards the end of the episode, the Literacy Academy Collective received a $15,000 donation from Scholastic, an additional $15,000 from “Captain Underpants” author Dav Pilkey and a matched donation from Clarkson.
