Kelly Clarkson filed for divorce from Brandon Blackstock last summer, in what seemed at the time like a regular old pandemic split. As in, “wow, now that we’re spending so much time together at home, I realize that I cannot stand you.” The split seemed lowkey at first, and then Brandon asked for $436,000 a month in child support and spousal support. Which was weird because the court had already given Kelly primary physical custody of the kids and the court was seemingly on Kelly’s side when it came to all of the fights about the children and money. Alongside this, we learned that Kelly countersued her husband’s management firm for defrauding her of millions of dollars.
All in all, things were getting messy in a hurry. Four weeks ago, Kelly asked the court to terminate the marriage and declare her legally single before they had worked out their entire divorce settlement. There wasn’t much movement on that, and now we know why – their contentious divorce was nearing the end, and the end is not great for Kelly:
Kelly Clarkson is now required to pay her ex-husband Brandon Blackstock nearly $200,000 per month in spousal and child support. A Los Angeles County judge handed down the order Tuesday that Clarkson give Blackstock $150,000 per month in spousal support, as well as $45,601 per month in child support, PEOPLE has learned.
The arrangement means that Blackstock, 43, will receive $195,601 in total from Clarkson each month, or roughly $2.4 million per year. The order also requires the singer to pay $1.25 million towards her estranged husband’s attorney fees and costs for their ongoing divorce.
A source previously told PEOPLE that Blackstock had been aiming for more than double the amount in support, requesting that Clarkson pay him $436,000 per month ($301,000 in spousal support and $135,000 in child support).
Clarkson is being represented by celebrity attorney Laura Wasser, who recently launched It’s Over Easy. The service helps streamline the divorce process for individuals who might not be able to obtain her services otherwise.
I think Kelly got screwed over financially, what do you think? It’s more than likely that the court came up with these numbers because the amount represents a certain percentage of Kelly’s annual earnings, but still. Blackstock and his father mismanaged Kelly’s career, defrauded her financially and now she has to pay her ex $2.4 million a year even though she has primary custody of the kids? And she’s paying a chunk of his legal fees AND back spousal support? I feel like Kelly got massively screwed over.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Ouch! This does seem excessive…
She really should’ve divorced before she got her TV show. She’s executive producer, and it’s making her a lot of money!
I thought so too, but doing the math he’s getting 8% of her annual income in spousal support and a very reasonable child support payment. There’s almost certainly an end-date for the spousal support since they weren’t married that long, so he gets this money for some number of years (my bet is 5-10). It’s a huge amount of money, but she keeps 90% of her income so she will be living a VERY different lifestyle than he will (ie. he can afford to fly first class, she can afford a private jet).
Kelly got screwed. She’s probably relieved to be away from him, but this is ridiculous.
But everyone was fine with Bezos’s wife being given a chunk of his money
MacKenzie Bezos HELPED her husband START Amazon out of their garage. They were married for 20-odd years. Quite a difference.
You really think that is an apples to apples comparison? Let me guess, no.
Woman marries a man who becomes rich fair enough ,man does the same bastard
the live in Cali it is a 50/50 division he is getting 10% .Was there citicism of Dr Dre’s ex when she was awarded $3.5 mill annually (he also had Wasser as his lawyer)
or JHud whem she broke up with Otunga and he got custody
Honestly, I don’t give a fig about other divorce settlements; we’re talking about this one. The guy took from her, lied to her, and does not have primary custody. He took advantage of her, and he doesn’t deserve a payday for that. She was established long before he came along.
No one supports anyone marrying for money; I don’t know where you get that, but it’s inaccurate and sexist.
How is it sexist to point out you are only complaing about men? They live in a 50/50 state and he is getting 10 %
It is not me moaning about Dre’s ex or the others getting there claims met
Please provide examples of me “not complaining about men.” Please provide examples of me “moaning about Dre’s ex or others getting there claims met.” You can’t, because they don’t exist. Step off.
Funnily enough these other divorces were entirely missing from here .
So you’ve got nothing. Next.
@Humbugged exists to be a contrarian.
Dr. Dre’s wife managed his home and raised his children for decades while he pursued his music career, entitling her to a significant share of the assets accumulated during their marriage (which is how it works in “Cali” and all community property states, BTW.) They were married for more than 20 years.
McKenzie Bezos was instrumental in the formation and growth of Amazon from a tiny business run out of her parents’ basement to the global monolith it is today, a fact that Jeff Bezos publicly acknowledged. She, too, is entitled to a significant share of the assets her time, efforts, in ingenuity helped them earn. THEIR money, not his money. They, too, were married for more than 20 years.
Brandon Blackstock leeched on to Kelly after she was a success and financially well-off, did f***-all while she ran her successful businesses and hustled in her chosen field, left the child-rearing (of their two together and his two from a previous marriage) largely to her even though she’s the breadwinner, stole money from her along with his shady father and their “management company” and then dipped out and asked for the sun, moon, and stars. AND they were married for less than 7 years. So yeah, he’s lucky she didn’t file before she signed on to her show, because he’s only entitled to a share of the assets accumulated during their (relatively short) marriage, and spousal support is not compulsory in CA for marriages of less than 10 years’ duration. She may be doing monthly payments to avoid having to make a lump-sum settlement. He comes away looking predatory and like a gold-digger.
Since I don’t write for this site, it’s not under my control. Contrarian? Nope. I don’t respect an argument that distracts from the issue by pointing fingers elsewhere. That’s not engaging in the actual discussion. It’s false equivalency and it’s for people who can’t argue the issue.
Jeez, it wasn’t ‘his’ money, it was their money. They started Amazon together and she was intimately involved in creating Amazon’s amazing success. They split THEIR assets, not his money.
Was Dre’s money his or was it community property ?
And Dre’s ,JessesWilliams, and JHud’s assets were whose ?
But it similar to the whole long list of divorces that this site does not mention
You get married and divorced that is the cost in Cali
Kelly absolutely got screwed. He is a real piece of work.
Yep.
Yep, this sounds like scumbaggery, in no way comparable to Bezos divorce
It’s not. It’s a stupid false equivalency, and there’s no point in engaging in discussion with folks who don’t understand logical fallacy. Lol
I just keep thinking of the song Piece by Piece, I think the line is ‘he never asks for money.’ It sucks to be so wrong about somebody 🙁
Ugh! You are SO right! I remember hearing that beautiful song and then looking at him and thinking, REALLY? I pegged him as shady from the start. NEVER liked him. Kelly deserves SO much better.
100%. She put her soul into the marriage and he bamboozled the money with rumors that he was cheating with every skirt he ran into. He was NOT involved in making her famous, American Idol did that and she has enough talent, work ethic and personality to make it work. Blech.
Yeah, I used to love that song, but now I just flinch when I hear it.
Oooo this! I remember hearing that song and thinking that it was a red flag – like Kelly has been open with her trauma around her dad and this guy just swooped in.
Side note – his thieving dad did the same thing to Reba. These two goons…
Just read the lyrics. Ouch!
I believe this is the song where she cried every time she sang it. Damn.
Yeah he didn’t ask for money because he was stealing it it turns out
I believe that this is still only a temporary court decision. They’re still weighing the validity of the their prenup and if it’s deemed valid then he’ll get whatever is noted in the prenup and either way, he’ll only get two years of alimony based on how long they were married. But he’s still a piece of work. I hope she wins her suit against him and his father and she gets some of her money back.
Well she makes $1.5 million a month so this would be an accurate amount of money for spousal support and child support based on her income. The thing is she has a pre-nup so I don’t understand why she has to pay him spousal support?
That’s what I’m thinking – she must be raking it in, so I’m not surprised it’s a lot of money.
Considering he got less than half of what he originally asked for, she’s probably glad to be done with it for now, but I agree, with a pre-nup this should have been more easily spelled out and expected?
I feel for her, especially with him being tied up in her professional life as well. I hope she does well with that lawsuit if the firm defrauded her.
Sometimes you would rather pay and think it well worth it never to have to see their face again.
I don’t understand that either. I could understand if he doesn’t have a job, but he does and he was gainfully employed when they met and maintained his employment. Why should Kelly pay spousal support? It would be one thing if he was a stay at home dad, but he wasn’t. So why does he need spousal support and his legal pays as well?
This is a crap ruling. Wasser should have denied spousal support due to the fact he is employed. Add to the fact that he is still employed. Did this douche bag claim he was entitled to his married life style? Plus, he can take care of himself. This is BS!
I don’t know if people realize how much Kelly makes. She is not just a singer, she wrote her songs, so she gets big publishing money. She is not only the star of her talk show, she is executive producer, and it got picked up for 3 more seasons. She’s also on The Voice. She made $14M per season, and was a coach for 6 seasons. Not to mention that she’s done a lot of endorsements too.
The child support is the only part I am not concerned about, because almost every state has a formula that is very specific based on time spent with each parent and the income of each parent.
The spousal support seems sketchy AF.
That’s what I’m thinking. I think child support to fathers and mothers should be high and fair, but spousal support seems sketch. Hopefully they had a great prenup and that kicks in soon.
they live in a 50/50 State
50/50 of the MARITAL assets, not the total assets. And prenups are valid in the state of California and can spell out what constitutes marital assets.
Typically, with this net worth, it’s better to pay 50% child support payments, so where the kids are sleeping remain out of the equation.
He seems exactly like the type of guy that would demand “his” 50% physical custody of the kids just to get “his” 50% child support payments. Basically, he would only fight for custody if he got paid for it and in the process putting the kids in the middle and doing some long term damage to their mental well being. She’s basically paying him for a job he isn’t doing to save her kids from having to be shuffled around and used for money. I’m not sure I’m explaining it well but he’s all about the money not the kids and she knows that and her attorneys know that. He’s gross!
I think she got both him and his father out of her management. Given her earnings I think she is probably happy. They can recut the spousal support if he ever gets a job.
Wasser used to be the go-to gal for celeb divorces – but man, is it just me or does her track record stink recently?
I was just thinking that. She was Angelina’s first choice too right? Seems to me she doesn’t have the ladies’ best interests at heart …
And she was Dr Dre’s rep and he has to pay $3.5 mil a year
In my state the regulatory body for lawyers is called the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Committee (ARDC); whatever the California equivalent is, they should be looking into Wasser. She’s grossly incompetent.
Perhaps it’s one of those “I don’t care how much it costs, get rid of him” things. When you’ve got as much money as she does, peace of mind counts for a lot. I hope she wins her lawsuit, though. Perhaps it’s part of the overall strategy there.
I guess there was no pre-nup? This is rough. That’s a LOT of money per month, especially since she’s the one with primary custody.
He was pretty strategic about the whole thing. Be careful whom you marry
If there is a lesson to be learned here is NEVER have your husband manage your career. We see this over and over again. Mary J Blige and Kelly Clarkson are just the most recent examples.
Yup. Especially if you are his biggest, most famous, or even only client. I call it the Kendu Isaacs Principle.
Basically, don’t marry a bum and try to put him on/lift him up. You’re just giving him multiple ways to reach into your bag.
And don’t get married if you’re rich.
This is what I was wondering. I wonder if he could argue that since he manages her, divorcing cuts off his income/support and that’s why he’s entitled to so much spousal support? I mean, if he managed her and got her those lucrative deals (hosting, her talk show, etc) then yeah he can say it’s THEIR money but it’s so sketchy and feels exploitative. Don’t mix relationship and management.
She needs to fire Wasser, who is more concerned with being a celebrity herself instead of a divorce attorney.
For real.
Kelly needs a hard nose attorney who can get a full audit done.
She needs to call Angelina.
If Kelly does that, she’ll be in litigation for half a decade.
It’s not like we didn’t try to warn her! I remember posts on this blog that he was shady from day one!
He looks like a slimeball. Too bad she didn’t see this coming
Too many of these female celebrities get caught up with scamming ass scammers for husbands, especially when the husband starts working as the manager. Same thing happened to Mary J. Blige.
Poor Kelly. Her legal team proved to be an epic failure. She must be so upset.
Someone help me understand – why is a pre-nup never upheld once the marriage is dissolved? Why go into the cost of signing a pre-nup if its’ validity will be contested? Aren’t they supposed to be valid, therefore enforceable?
Pre-nups are weird. In a lot of cases they are iron clad and its very cut and dry. However if one party can prove that the pre-nup was based on false information, etc. then it gets complicated. My parents had a prenup and my mom contested it and it was completely thrown out. She was able to show the court that she did not have proper legal representation at the time she signed it and that she was under duress. My dad and grandmother presented it to her on the morning of the wedding and she basically told sign it or no wedding. She was also told it was a “wedding present” in that in the event of a divorce she would get half the house or something crazy like that. The only attorney present was my father’s family lawyer.
So yeah…..
I can’t begin to tell you how dramatic that divorce was.
Kiera, that seems sensible. She was under duress, she was basically coerced into signing it and I’m glad she got what was legally hers.
But it seems every single prenup is contested now a days, even if there was no coercion and both parties had proper legal representation. So why even bother signing one if it’s gonna get tossed out?
I wonder if this was an agreement to get him totally away from her career? Like to get out of any management deal? I can see her being willing to do this if it means he’s no longer professionally associated with her.
How many months/years will he cash in? It seems like so much money, but I’m comforted to know that he seems like the kind of man who will spend recklessly and end up bankrupt soon enough.
Such an f*ckin shyster. Him and his dad. Suddenly he wants to be a rancher. Cut him off at the knees. I hope the final payment is less than his $81k mortgage for that crap ranch.
I thought his dad was still married to Reba and that was going to be awkward-but now I see they split in 2015. I wonder if that’s when then father/son team started ripping Kelly off. She and Reba are really close. I’m hoping she gave her some tips on how to get away from the blackstock men.
Wasserman isn’t worth her fee anymore. She’s more interested in being a celeb vs a lawyer.
The main thing is that she gets this guy out of her life. It is a lot of money, but she makes a TON of money and in the future, she’ll make more. And next time she marries, she’ll have an iron-clad prenup. Why she didn’t have one for this go around, I’m not sure. Anyway, pay the guy and move on with your fabulous life, Kelly!
He and his father need to man up and earn their own $$$.
Kelly does two seasons a year of The Voice. That puts her in California six months out of the year. They lived in Tennessee. He pushed her talk show on her. She did not want to do it. She kept saying no, that she had too much going on already and small children. She needed to have her music career and The Voice and be a stepmother and mother. She loves her stepchildren as her own. She even asked him, when he kept telling her she should do the talk show, if he was talking to her as her manager or as her husband. He was setting himself up financially. She was his golden goose. So here she is living completely in California now, which she did not want. Her talk show is successful, but it’s a lot on her plate. Although, I’m sure she’s glad she did it now. It’s just that I believe he never cared about her, and for him it was all about making the money.
And what does he get to do? Retire because his golden goose will work and support him. So he moves to Wyoming or Montana, or wherever he is, where none of his kids are. His two children from his first marriage are in Tennessee, and Kelly’s are in California. What a dad. Making great decisions based on being close to his children. It’s all about him. Kelly must feel so used. It’s sad.
Kelly, call attorney Rosengart, stat. This is disgusting. I hope she reams those grifters a new one. I think she will. Don’t back down Kelly. This ain’t over. Just the beginning.
Aside from that, our Golden Girl is making serious bank at $1.5M per month. SO happy for her! I listened to Mayim Bialik’s podcast with Kelly, it’s on YouTube from a few months ago (or more?) Kelly pays for her whole team to take this amazing supplement (forget the name of it) because it is so beneficial and energizing. She stated that it is a shame that only well to do people can afford it. Such a generous soul. I will always adore Kelly.
It’s unfortunate but wealthy people will always pay significant amount of money if they marry less wealthy partners. Examples: B Spears vs K Fed, JLo vs C Judd, Mel Gibson vs ex wife, Charlie Sheen vs Denise Richards, etc. This is something everyone needs to take into consideration before marriage.
Funny that you mention Charlie Sheen because I have seen numerous articles saying he hid money and was behind on child support to Brooke and Denise.
@Scal: Wasser is well respected. Kelly earns 1.9 million a month. She can keep aprox. 1.7 million and pay him 200k a month. That’s as good as it’s going to get in a divorce.
She’ll never sing that “Piece By Piece” song again, that’s for sure.
The only good thing she got out of that marriage were her kids and Reba.
I believe it was said that the song “Piece by Piece” was about her stepdad. Not a romantic relationship.