It's not often Kelly Clarkson gets emotional on the air ... except when Sterling K. Brown is involved!
On April 7, Sterling stopped by The Kelly Clarkson Show to talk about his hit Hulu drama Paradise. While he and Kelly shared thoughts on the success of the series, the conversation eventually turned to an interesting tidbit Kelly learned about Sterling. As the host shared in a clip posted on YouTube, she discovered Sterling went by his middle name Kelby when he was a child. As for the reason behind the name switch, Sterling had a surprisingly candid answer for it.
"I went by my middle name, I went by 'Kelby' until I was 16 years old," Sterling shared. "My dad's Sterling Brown Jr., my grandfather Sterling Brown Sr. I’m Sterling Kelby Brown ... I wanted my own name and it felt like Sterling was an old man's name."
But that's not all Sterling shared about his unique moniker. He later shared how he chose to go back to being called Sterling both in his professional and personal life as a teenager after the death of his dad at age 10. And while going by his middle name was initially a way to separate himself from previous generations of men with the same name, Sterling noted going by his given name now is a form of honoring his late father.
"By the time I turned 16 and I hadn't heard his name for five-and-a-half years, I was like, I kind of just want to hear that name again,'" he added. "So, I asked people to call me Sterling."
"That was so sweet and beautiful!" Kelly responded with tears in her eyes.
Upon seeing the surprisingly emotional exchange between Kelly and Sterling, many others felt a similar pull at their own heartstrings.
"Kelly's me every time I start to get emotional: '... ok ... OK!'" one person wrote in the comments. "Aww that is so sweet! (Name change)," another agreed. "I just teared when he explained why he goes by Sterling now," a different follower added.
As the entertainment and news associate editor for Good Housekeeping, Adrianna (she/her) writes about everything TV, movies, music and pop culture. She graduated from Yeshiva University with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in business management. She covers shows like The Rookie, 9-1-1 and Grey's Anatomy, though when she’s not watching the latest show on Netflix, she’s taking martial arts or drinking way too much coffee.
