Brandon Blackstock — a talent manager best known for having been both the ex-husband of Kelly Clarkson and the former stepson of Reba McEntire — has passed away.
He was 48 years old.
The very sad news was broken not long after Clarkson canceled a number of dates on her Las Vegas residency to her ex-spouse’s illness.
“It is with great sadness that we share the news that Brandon Blackstock has passed away,” a rep for the family said in a statement on Thursday.
The cause of death was then revealed as follows:
“Brandon bravely battled cancer for more than three years. He passed away peacefully and was surrounded by family. We thank you for your thoughts and prayers and ask everyone to respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time.”
Clarkson and Blackstock share two children: River Rose, 11, and Remington “Remy” Alexander, 8.
On August 6, Clarkson revealed Blackstock had been sick, postponing her Las Vegas residency via this message:
“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. I am sincerely sorry to everyone who bought tickets to the shows and I so appreciate your grace, kindness and understanding.”
Blackstock also had two kids from a previous marriage, Savannah and Seth.
He became a grandfather in 2022 when his eldest child Savannah gave birth to a son, Lake.
Clarkson and Blackstock got married in October 2013.
Following their nuptials, Blackstock took on the role of his wife’s manager… which eventually led to a very messy divorce in 2020.
In March 2024, two years after this divorce was finalized, Clarkson filed a lawsuit against her ex-husband and former manager.
She claimed in this legal motion that Brandon and his father Narvel Blackstock’s management firm, Starstruck Entertainment, violated labor laws since the beginning of their relationship with Clarkson, which started in 2007.
Clarkson alleged in the lawsuit that Starstruck “was not licensed as talent agents” and argues that the firm never “obtained a talent agency license from the California Labor Commissioner.”
As a result? She said on record that Blackstock and his associates ought to repay her any money they previously earned off of her career.
In 2022, meanwhile, a judge ruled that Blackstock owed Clarkson $2.6 million, which he had (illegally) earned in commissions through her work on The Voice and other projects.
Prior to these lawsuits and these allegations, Clarkson spoke glowingly of her then-husband.
“This guy walks by, making everybody laugh,” she told People Magazine in 2013 of the first impression he left on her. “I said, ‘I’m gonna end up with him. I know it.'”
The original American Idol winner also wrote the song “Piece by Piece” about Blackstock, from which we took the lyrics below:
But piece by piece, he collected me up. Off the ground, where you abandoned things / Piece by piece, he filled the holes that you burned in me / Piece by piece, he restored my faith.
A source confirmed to Page Six this week that Blackstock had recently been in hospice.
Despite the major differences outlined above, Clarkson helped care for Blackstock amid his health struggles, taking time off of her talk show in February and March.
“I think the thing about divorce — especially having it publicized, and people thinking they know the whole thing — the hardest part of that is, like, it wasn’t an overnight decision,” Clarkson said of the marital split in 2023.
“I wanted to make it beautiful. I wanted to make it awesome. I wanted to make it everything it possibly could be, and sometimes that just doesn’t happen.”