Kelly Clarkson Squashes Carrie Underwood ‘Beef’ Rumors: ‘We Don’t Even Know Each Other Well Enough!’

These American Idol winners have no bad blood.

In her Tuesday appearance on Watch What Happens Live, Kelly Clarkson shut down any rumors that she and Carrie Underwood had issues with each other. Clarkson, who won the first season of American Idol, questioned why people assumed there was a problem between her and season two winner Underwood, 40.

“We don’t even know each other well enough to be pitted against [each other,]” Clarkson, 41, said. “Literally, we’ve run into each other a handful of times, and there’s no beef between us. Nothing between us — we don’t know each other. We literally have run into each other a few times.”

The “Breakaway” singer’s response cut off the virtual audience asker, who host Andy Cohen asked to finish their question after Clarkson finished. The caller continued, “What was your favorite part of having her as a guest on your talk show?”

Hearing the full question, Clarkson laughed, went up to the bar, gave a quick ‘cheers’ to the night’s bartender, Rob Anderson, before explaining, “Look, everyone always asks me the pitted-against-each-other question.”

She continued, “It was awesome! It was great to have her on the show. I think the thing that was cool about it is that everyone always pits us against each other, and I don’t know why they do that. They don’t do that with dudes. They only do it with females. And I’m like, we don’t even know each other well enough to do that. But I think… I’d love to have her there in-person! It was during COVID, so it was over Zoom, which is fine, but it’d be cool.”

Later in the evening, Cohen brought Clarkson back to her American Idol roots once again in his fabled game, “Plead the Fifth.” For his second of three questions, Cohen asked, “Can you name an American Idol winner from the last five years?”

Clarkson responded with a quick “oh s—,” before delaying and guessing in her response. Ultimately, she was unable to name any of the show’s recent winners, which was rebooted in 2018 with Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie as judges.

Of course, this isn’t Clarkson’s first time being paired up with Underwood. In 2020, she revealed that she had signed an autograph as the country superstar when a fan mistook the two for each other.

“I literally look nothing like Carrie Underwood,” Clarkson said. “I was so embarrassed for her that I just… She was like, ‘Can you sign this?’ And I totally signed ‘Carrie Underwood.’ I think that might be illegal!”