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Heidi Gutman/NBCUniversal/Getty Images; Taylor Hill/Getty Images
Four years have passed since Kelly Clarkson filed for divorce from her ex-husband and manager, Brandon Blackstock, and there are still aftershocks of the controversial separation.
It has been a long and bitter end for a relationship that officially began in 2012, although Clarkson and Blackstock met years before. Blackstock’s father, Narvel, was Clarkson’s manager, and in 2006, they crossed paths when Clarkson collaborated with Rascal Flats, who Brandon managed at the time. Blackstock was also married at the time, so it wasn’t until she divorced that he and Clarkson reconnected after the latter sang the National Anthem at the 2012 Super Bowl.
They married in 2013 and had two children: a daughter born in 2014 and a son born in 2016. Throughout their time together, Blackstock also served as Clarkson’s manager, an arrangement that continues to cause problems as they continue to unravel their working relationship. after the resounding end of their romance.
With Clarkson opening another chapter in the ongoing saga earlier this week, as she seeks more money from a California Labor Commission ruling over Blackstock’s business practices, here’s a timeline of a high-profile split that has unfolded in the courts and the tabloids, as much as songs and scenes.
Clarkson files for divorce
clarkson She filed for divorce from Blackstock on June 4, 2020, citing irreconcilable differences. In the original filing, Clarkson asked the court to enforce a prenuptial agreement, ensure she would not have to pay Blackstock spousal support and that both parties would cover their own legal fees. Clarkson also requested that her surname be restored after taking Blackstock when they married.
Over the next few months, Clarkson spoke openly about the divorce. She obviously didn’t share specific details, especially anything related to her children, but she was honest about her feelings and the challenges of going through something so personal in front of the public. In an October 2020 interview with Entertainment tonight, called the split “horribly sad” and added, “What’s been a little hard to understand is that I’m an open book, but at some point, I’m more of a mama bear than a person in the public eye.” . “So I care 100 percent more about my kids than anything else on this planet.”
Contract disputes
In September 2020, in the midst of divorce proceedings, Starstruck Entertainment, the management company owned by Blackstock’s father, sued Clarkson. They accused her of allegedly breaching her “oral” management contract and owing more than $1.4 million in commissions. On top of that, the company claimed that it “turned Clarkson into a mega superstar” and that he would likely be owed $5.4 million in commissions by the end of the year. Clarkson filed a response to the lawsuit with the California Labor Commission in November 2020, but the dispute would fall by the wayside for the next three years.
Clarkson won primary custody
Also in November 2020, a judge Clarkson was awarded primary custody of her and Blackstock’s two children. In the ruling, the judge said “that under the circumstances present in this case, the interest in providing stability and continuity for the minor children weighs in favor” of Clarkson (although Blackstock was still allowed to visit him and was granted certain vacations with their children). ). The presentation also noted that “the level of conflict between parents has increased. The parties have difficulties in exercising shared parenting due to issues of trust between them.”
Clarkson declared legally single
In July 2021, while the official divorce process was still technically dragging on, Clarkson asked a judge declare her legally single. In a court filing, she said the couple’s “irreconcilable differences” had caused their marriage to “irretrievably break down,” adding: “No counseling or reconciliation efforts will be of any value at this time.” The presentation struck a conciliatory tone, however, as Clarkson said she and Blackstock “deserve the chance to build a new life.”
He the request was granted the next month.
Finalized divorce
Almost two years after the first filing, Clarkson and Blackstock’s divorce was officially finished in March 2022. However, the final ruling was quite harsh on Clarkson: She was ordered to pay Blackstock a one-time lump sum of more than $1.3 million, $45,000 a month in child support and $115,000 a month on spousal support until January. January 31, 2024. The couple also agreed to joint custody of their children, although the two would primarily live with Clarkson in Los Angeles.
Court documents detail a variety of other items spread between the two. While Clarkson got the family pets and a flight simulator, Blackstock received his “farm cattle, cattle, cattle dogs and horses” (apparently from the ranch they shared in Montana), a pair of snowmobiles and some Patek watches. Philippe.
Breakup album on the way
A few months after the divorce was finalized, in September 2022, Clarkson said. Variety who was preparing to release his first album of all-new material since 2017. Meaning of life. The singer also revealed that the LP would very much be a divorce album, acknowledging that she had started working on it two years earlier, just as the proceedings were beginning.
“My producer and I were laughing yesterday because I thought, ‘Remember that time we wrote like 25 songs in a week?’” Clarkson recalled. “A lot of those are the ones on the album. I literally wrote most of these almost two years ago. Then I told my label, ‘I can’t talk about this until I’ve passed it,’ and it took me a while to do that. That’s one of the reasons we’ve done a lot of Christmas stuff in the last two years, because I thought, ‘Well, that’s happy!’”
He Chemistry was
Clarkson officially announced her new album, Chemistryin March 2023, specifically one year after their divorce was finalized, and it arrived a few months later, on June 23. In a four-star review, Ilana Kaplan wrote for Rolling Stone: “Clarkson’s healing journey is neither linear nor without edges: it is a winding roller coaster that burns with pain, rage and regret. After all, hell hath no fury like a scorned pop star.”
Clarkson wore that Chemistry energy to the stage. A few days after announcing the album, the The Kelly Clarkson Show, covered Gayle’s hit “Abcdefu” with some lyrical tweaks to appease daytime television censors and to address her divorce. Even bolder, in August she transformed her own 2015 song, “Piece by Piece,” from a devotional anthem about Blackstock to one of self-empowerment.
A late victory
In November 2023, three years after Clarkson criticized Blackstock and Starstruck in front of the California Labor Commission, she emerged victorious, with the board ruling that Blackstock charged Clarkson with business deals for which she was not licensed. In California, managers cannot act as agents and, as such, Clarkson successfully argued that Blackstock must return the commissions she received for securing contracts for the singer. The voiceNorwegian cruise lines, the Billboard Music Awards and even their Wayfair commercials. In total, the court said Blackstock owed Clarkson $2.6 million.
Blackstock appealed the decision, arguing that he and Starstruck deserve a separate trial on the matter. With that decision still pending, Clarkson decided to fire another salvo: In March 2024, she filed a countersuit in response to Starstruck’s original 2020 lawsuit, seeking to uphold the Labor Commission’s ruling and potentially expand the $2.6 million she was awarded.