US singer Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband Brandon Blackstock dies at 48 after cancer battle
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US singer Kelly Clarkson (right) and Mr Brandon Blackstock in 2013. The couple finalised their divorce in 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Alexandra E. Petri
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NEW YORK – Mr Brandon Blackstock, a talent manager and the former husband of American singer and talk-show host Kelly Clarkson, has died. He was 48.
His death, which followed a three-year battle with cancer, was announced on Aug 7 in a social media post by Starstruck Entertainment, a Nashville, Tennessee-based talent-management company owned by his father Narvel Blackstock, at which he was an executive.
The announcement of Mr Brandon Blackstock’s death came one day after Clarkson, 43, said she would be postponing the August dates of her residency in Las Vegas, citing his health and their two children, aged nine and 11.
“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,” Clarkson said in a statement uploaded to her Instagram account on Aug 6.
Clarkson, who won the first season of US reality singing competition American Idol in 2002, began her residency, Kelly Clarkson: Studio Sessions, at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in July.
She previously postponed the opening nights on July 4 and 5 because of vocal issues, she said in a post on Instagram on July 4.
There were five shows scheduled for August, according to her website, with the next concert to be held on Nov 7.
Clarkson and Mr Blackstock began dating in 2012 and married in Tennessee in 2013. She filed for divorce in June 2020, citing “irreconcilable differences”.
The former couple were then embroiled in an acrimonious divorce battle over issues such as child custody, spousal support and division of property, including ownership of their Montana ranch.
Their split was finalised in March 2022, and Clarkson was granted primary physical custody of their two children.
Mr Blackstock was an executive producer on Clarkson’s daytime talk show The Kelly Clarkson Show from 2019 to 2020. He also previously managed American country singer Blake Shelton.
Mr Blackstock had two children – daughter Savannah and son Seth – from his previous marriage with Ms Melissa Ashworth, 51, whom he split from in 2012. NYTIMES
