Judge Orders Kelly Clarkson to Pay Ex Brandon Blackstock Nearly $200,000 Per Month in Support
A judge has ordered Kelly Clarkson to pay nearly $200,000 a month in various kinds of financial support to her estranged husband, Brandon Blackstock.
The Blast reports that a Los Angeles County Court judge ordered the new arrangement after more than a year of back-and-forth between the former couple over their increasingly contentious divorce.
According to the Blast, court documents list Clarkson's monthly income at a whopping $1,583,617 per month. She earns that money from her musical career, as well as her gig as a judge on The Voice and her daytime talk show.
The new order requires Clarkson to pay Blackstock — a former talent manager who served as her manager during their marriage — $150,000 per month in spousal support. The decision also directs her to “pay child support to [Blackstock] for the benefit of the minor children, River Rose Blackstock, born June 12, 2014, and Remington Alexander Blackstock, born April 12, 2016, in the amount of $45,601 per month.”
Those two figures total $195,601 a month in overall support.
According to court documents, Blackstock is leaving his career as an entertainment manager to become a rancher. Brandon “made a very deliberate choice to change his life and become a rancher full-time,” the filing states, and he plans to sponsor rodeos and work what used to be the couple's jointly held Montana ranch.
Clarkson initially wanted to sell the Montana ranch after filing for divorce, but a judge blocked that and ordered Blackstock to begin covering the costs for the property, which total about $81,000 each month.
Blackstock currently “spends minimal time regarding his representation of his remaining client, Blake Shelton," the documents reveal.
The court has also ordered Clarkson to pay nearly $1.25 million in Blackstock's court costs and attorney's fees in the divorce.
The new order comes nearly a month after Clarkson's lawyer, Laura Wasser, filed a formal request in court on July 2, asking a judge to put aside ongoing issues including a financial settlement and custody of the couple's two children and grant Clarkson's request for a divorce, leaving the other issues to get resolved at a later date.
Clarkson and Blackstock married in 2013. Clarkson filed for divorce in June of 2020. Blackstock responded to Clarkson's divorce petition on July 21, and the couple initially tried to work out their divorce privately and easily, citing the best interests of their kids.
The situation turned more contentious in September of 2020, when Starstruck Management Group — which Blackstock's father, Narvel Blackstock, founded and where Blacktock previously worked as a talent agent — sued Clarkson, alleging they were owed unpaid commissions exceeding a million dollars. She countersued in December, alleging that Blackstock had defrauded her by overcharging her over the years. She also claimed that Starstruck was not licensed to practice in California, a violation of the California Labor Code. Blackstock denied her claims in legal documents he filed in January of 2021.
A judge awarded Clarkson temporary primary physical custody of the couple's children in November of 2020. According to TMZ, that is likely to become permanent.
Blackstock is challenging the couple's prenuptial agreement in court, which is one of the issues that has caused their divorce to drag on for more than a year.
Clarkson has been moving on from the marriage in a number of other ways in recent days. The couple's former 20,000-square-foot mansion in Tennessee sold on June 17, and Clarkson has just purchased a stunning new mansion in an exclusive area of Los Angeles, where she's been living as she focuses on her television work. Clarkson has also listed her former mansion in California for sale for just under $9 million.