Kelly Clarkson‘s former husband, Brandon Blackstock, has died. Blackstock and Clarkson were married in 2013. The two are parents of 11-year-old daughter, River, and son Remington, who is nine. Blackstock also has two children from a previous marriage, and one grandchild.
Blackstock is the son of Narvel Blackstock, who was previously married to Reba McEntire.
“It is with great sadness that we share the news that Brandon Blackstock has passed away,” the family says in a statement (via People). “Brandon bravely battled cancer for more than three years. He passed away peacefully and was surrounded by family. We thank you for your thoughts and prayers and ask everyone to respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time.”
Clarkson recently postponed the August dates on her Studio Sessions Las Vegas residency.
“Unfortunately, I need to postpone the remainder of the August Studio Session dates in Las Vegas,” Clarkson revealed on social media.
“While I normally keep my personal life private, this past year, my children’s father has been ill and at this moment, I need to be fully present for them. I am sincerely sorry to everyone who bought tickets to the shows and I so appreciate your grace, kindness and understanding.”
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Kelly Clarkson’s Relationship With Brandon Blackstock
Blackstock served as Clarkson’s manager while they were married. He also managed Blake Shelton. Clarkson and Blackstock split in 2020. Their divorce was finalized in 2022. They had joint custody of their two children.
“I think the thing about divorce — especially having it publicized, and people thinking they know the whole thing — the hardest part of that is, like, it wasn’t an overnight decision,” Clarkson later said. “I wanted to make it beautiful. I wanted to make it awesome. I wanted to make it everything it possibly could be, and sometimes that just doesn’t happen.”
Clarkson and Blackstock did their best to shield their children from any of their personal pain, so much so that she previously recalled a humorous conversation she had with their son, who has little memory of his parents together.
“One of mine does remember,” Clarkson shares on KOST radio station. “And then one of them was like, ‘Do you know my dad?’ … Because one was really young, but the other one does [remember] — and it’s hard.”
Clarkson and Blackstock worked hard to remain amicable, choosing to both be present parents for their daughter and son.
“When my ex and I first separated, there were many emotions,” Clarkson admits to Variety, adding that she chronicled her pain in her 2023 album, Chemistry. “It was hard. My producer and I were laughing yesterday because I was like, “Remember that time we wrote, like, 25 songs in a week?” A lot of those are the ones that are 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 gone through it,’ and it’s just taken some time to do that. That’s one of the reasons we’ve done a lot of Christmas stuff the past two years — because I was like, ‘Well, that’s happy!'”
Funeral services have yet to be announced.