Kelly Clarkson seemingly shaded her ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, in a rare comment while voicing her frustrations about their coparenting dynamic.
The “Breakaway” singer, 42, spoke about the guilt she feels when she has to leave her kids for work or miss school events to Kylie Kelce during the Thursday, March 27, episode of her “Not Gonna Lie” podcast.
“It’s funny though how different it is because even from a young age, like we didn’t teach them [that],” Kelly, who shares two kids, 8-year-old Remy and 10-year-old River, with her ex, 48, explained. “Just innately, you’re like, ‘He’s allowed to be somewhere, but you’re not.’ Like, that is real interesting.”
Kelly got real about the situation, adding, “There’s a lot that I keep in because … coparenting is fun. It’s like, ‘Oh, he couldn’t come because this,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, cool.’ Do you think I just leave and just sit in the park all day?”
Kelly and Brandon were married for almost seven years before the American Idol alum filed for divorce in June 2020. Although Kelly was the one to initiate the legal filing, a source told Life & Style that she was having trouble adjusting to single life post-divorce.
“She’s finding her divorce more difficult to deal with than she anticipated,” the insider said in July 2020. “Kelly thought that moving forward with the divorce the right thing to do at the time, but now that Brandon has filed documents responding to her petition, she’s having some regrets.”
The source added that Kelly was “trying to keep herself busy with work and writing music,” but it wasn’t “enough to take her mind off things. It doesn’t help that the divorce is happening during a pandemic — it’s preventing her from seeing her friends in person and going out. She feels so alone and relies on social media comments from fans to cheer her up.”
Things continued to get tense between the former couple as a legal battle ensued. Kelly and Brandon were declared legally single in 2021, however, the divorce wasn’t finalized until a year later in March 2022. The three-time Grammy winner was ordered to pay her ex a one-time payment of $1.3 million, along with $200,000 a month in spousal and child support until January 2024. As a part of their agreement, Kelly was granted primary custody of their children, while Brandon was given custody one weekend every month.
The Kelly Clarkson Show host shared how she approached honesty with her children about the divorce, turning it into a valuable learning experience.
“I think the most important thing I’ve learned in therapy, especially through this divorce, is ‘Don’t hide everything from your kids.’ Obviously, don’t talk about stuff that you shouldn’t talk about, but it’s okay if they see you cry, or it’s okay if they see you’ve had a bad day,” she told Variety in September 2022.
She continued. “You start to feel that kind of shame, like, ‘I’ve got to put my best foot forward as a mom because I don’t want them to be affected.’ But then you allow your kids to express empathy, and they learn how to say, ‘Oh, man, I’m sorry you had a hard day.’”
