Never one to shy away from an honest conversation. Kelly Clarkson opened up about her relationship with husband Brandon Blackstock on multiple occasions before she filed for divorce in June 2020.
Us Weekly broke the news that the singer began dating the manager in 2011. Clarkson announced their engagement in December 2012. “I’m engaged!” she tweeted at the time. “I wanted y’all to know! Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever.”
The couple wed in Tennessee in October 2013, at which point she became a stepmom to his two kids — daughter Savannah and son Seth — whom he shares with ex-wife Melissa Ashworth. “We have to fit our romantic life into our schedule,” Clarkson told Us exclusively days before the nuptials. “It’ll be both a wedding and an elopement. I like it! We are just doing a small, little wedding — me and Brandon and the kids. That is it. All we have time for! But we’re happy with that. … We just wanted to make it about us.”
The twosome later welcomed daughter River in June 2014 and son Remington in April 2016.
While Clarkson did not hold back on speaking out about her marriage through the years, Blackstock rarely divulged his feelings on their dynamic and mostly stayed out of the public eye. However, in April 2020, months before she filed for divorce, he and their kids made a video to celebrate the Voice coach’s birthday.
“Happy birthday, baby,” he said in the clip, which was shared by The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I love you more than you’ll ever know.”
Us confirmed in June 2020 that Clarkson and Blackstock split after nearly seven years of marriage. She filed for divorce in Los Angeles on June 4.
The separation came amid the coronavirus pandemic, during which the pair and their family quarantined at a ranch in Montana.
Clarkson perhaps hinted at strife in May 2020 while revealing how she celebrated her birthday. “I literally looked at my husband, ‘cause it was a rough week of work and nonstop everything, and I said, ‘I don’t want to cook one damn meal. I don’t want to clean one article of clothing. I don’t want to do anything.’ I possibly — if my children were to come in and hug me, that’s fine and then they leave,” she explained on Late Night With Seth Meyers. “So, on my birthday, I literally asked to be left alone. … So I was alone and I enjoyed it.”
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Scroll down to revisit Clarkson’s quotes about her relationship with Blackstock.