Kelly Clarkson Declared Legally Single Amid Ongoing Divorce From Brandon Blackstock
Kelly Clarkson has scored another victory in her ongoing divorce from her estranged husband, Brandon Blackstock. According to multiple reports, a judge in the case has declared Clarkson legally single amid the continuing divorce proceedings, which have dragged on for more than a year.
Us Weekly and other news outlets have obtained legal documents pertaining to the divorce in news that broke on Friday (Sept. 24), showing that a judge declared both of the parties legally single in August of 2021. Clarkson filed a legal request with the court in July asking to be declared legally single amid her divorce, and she's also requested that the court restore her legal name.
Blackstock and Clarkson married in October of 2013. They have two children together, River Rose and Remington Alexander. A judge granted Clarkson temporary custody of both kids in November of 2020.
In July of 2021, a judge ordered Clarkson to pay Blackstock $150,000 in spousal support and $45,601 in child support each month, though that arrangement is temporary until a final divorce settlement is worked out. According to the new documents revealed Friday, the estranged couple's “marital or domestic partnership status” will come to a legal end on Jan. 7, 2022.
Clarkson was reportedly filming on the set of The Voice on Aug. 11 when she got the news that a judge had upheld the couple's prenuptial agreement, which Blackstock had been challenging since Clarkson filed for divorce in June of 2020.
Clarkson has been moving on from the marriage in various ways recently. The couple's former 20,000-square-foot mansion in Tennessee sold on June 17, and Clarkson has most recently sold her former mansion in California for just over $8 million. She also purchased a stunning new mansion in an exclusive area of Los Angeles in July, where she's been living as she focuses on her television work on her daily talk show, the Kelly Clarkson Show, as well as her role as a coach on The Voice.
Clarkson reportedly also wants to sell the Montana ranch where Blackstock has been living since the news of their divorce. Blackstock had been a talent manager during their marriage, but he's switching careers to become a full-time rancher, and his lawyers had argued that he had the legal right to live at the ranch until his challenge to the couple's prenup had been ruled upon.
The prenup states that whatever Clarkson acquired during the couple's seven-year marriage belongs solely to her, while whatever Blackstock acquired during that time belongs solely to him. Clarkson's money reportedly paid for the Montana ranch, which means that she has the legal right to sell the property now that a judge has upheld the agreement.