Kelly Clarkson: Explaining The Real Betrayals That Come With Mixing Business With Family Through Her Divorce From Brandon Blackstock – And Why She’s More Than Just An American Idol

In recent blog entries, I’ve been discussing love, lost love, and illness. This greatly made me think of Kelly Clarkson, who in recent days came back to her daytime routine with The Kelly Clarkson Show. The singer and talk show host didn’t lose some she loved to an illness, but she did lose someone she once loved due to an illness. I’m talking her ex-husband, former talent manager and television producer Brandon Blackstock. He passed away back in August after a secret 3 year battle with cancer. With Blackstock, Clarkson has two children, River and Remington, and they were married between 2013 and 2020 before Clarkson filed for divorce. Today that the divorce was messy would be an understatement, to say the least, but it seemed as though they remained civil for the sake of the children. Blackstock had two older children from a previous marriage as well, Savannah and Seth.

The day before Blackstock passed away on August 7th, Clarkson made a statement to her fans as she announced that she was cancelling her much anticipated Vegas residency tour to spend time with her children. The statement read, ‘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.’ She continued by apologizing to fans, as well as expressing her appreciation for their “grace, kindness and understanding.”

Just as a I mentioned before, Clarkson’s divorce from Blackstock, as well as their business dealings that came thereafter, was anything but civil. They became involved in a legal dispute regarding their professional relationship following their separation. In September 2020, Blackstock and his father’s management firm, Starstruck Entertainment, sued Clarkson, alleging she owed the company unpaid commissions. The “Since U Been Gone” singer responded by filing a petition with the California Labor Commission, arguing her ex acted illegally as her manager.

In November 2023, the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement ordered that Blackstock return $2,641,374 that he was paid in commissions while he was Clarkson’s manager. Clarkson had previously accused her ex-husband of unlawfully securing work for her between 2017 and 2020 and taking on work that her talent agents should’ve handled. Months later, Clarkson filed a new lawsuit against her ex-husband in March 2024, after a California agency ordered him to repay the singer over $2.6 million. The new lawsuit claimed that 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 argued that the firm never “obtained a talent agency license from the California Labor Commissioner.”

When it came down to their divorce, court documents stated that the singer was required to pay her ex-husband a one-time payment of $1,326,161. In addition, she was asked to pay monthly spousal support payments of $115,000 through Jan. 31, 2024, and $45,601 in child support monthly until their children reach 18. Clarkson was also required to pay Blackstock a one-time sum of $350,000 for their kids’ private air travel. That’s considering the fact that she had primary custody of the kids. As to the former couple’s joint assets, Clarkson took ownership of their two Montana properties and California residence. At the time, Blackstock was asked to pay $2,000 a month in rent for one property and $12,500 per month for the other. He was also asked to move out of both properties on or before June 1, 2022.

It’s safe to say that in Clarkson’s case, it wasn’t such a good outcome for her to mix business with love. Some might say that doing so is a great idea; that there are benefits to doing so. In my previous post, the subject matter was the relationship between Wu Suowei and Chi Cheng from the BL Chinese drama Revenged Love. In the series, Chi Cheng, who came from a wealthy family, financed Wu Suowei’s business and introduced him to other investors as well. When they temporarily broke up, there was no indication that Chi Cheng wanted stop helping Wu Suowei on any way despite his betrayal. That was because Chi Cheng was a good person.

Wu Suowei initially started his business after his girlfriend, Yue Yue, broke up with him because she was all about class, image, and wealth. He didn’t do it to get her back, though. He didn’t it because he wanted to turn his life around following the breakup. What he did want was get revenge on his ex-girlfriend, so when he found out that she was dating Chi Cheng, he made an entire plan to get him to want to be with him even though he had zero previous interest in men. The two of them had started working together before they got together, which was the same for Clarkson and Blackstock.

Perhaps the most satisfying scene in the entire series was when Yue Yue came to Wu Suowei’s company event. She was eager to get back together with him because she saw him as someone who could provide for her. He, on the other hand, had no interest in her whatsoever. He was entirely with Chi Cheng, genuinely by that point. He wanted nothing to do with her. When she tried to make her moves on him, he brushed her off, and instead, told her that he was with Chi Cheng. Her reaction was exactly what she deserved after the way she treated him throughout their relationship and thereafter.

When her sex appeal didn’t work to get Wu Suowei back, Yue Yue went to her mother for help. After she left Wu Suowei’s mother’s house, Chi Cheng went to see her. It was then when he’d figured out that Wu Suowei was in a previous relationship with Yue Yue and found out Wu Suowei’s initial purpose as to why he’d gotten in a relationship with him. Heartbroken, Chi Cheng broke up with Wu Suowei’s initial purpose, but never stopped supporting him and being there for him. Not financially or emotionally. He was always there. He kept his distance, but never truly disappeared. They eventually got back together after Wu Suowei’s mother’s passing. And in the end, Chi Cheng bought back Wu Suowei’s mother’s house back after Wu Suowei sold it in order to bail Chi Cheng out of jail. The house wasn’t just a house for Wu Suowei, and Chi Cheng knew it. These two were each other’s home. They didn’t even need to say ‘I love you’ to each other. They just knew. And if you want to know more about them and the series as a whole, you can certainly read the previous post, but only after you get to finish THIS one.

Despite Chi Cheng and Wu Souwei getting a happy ending, at least as seen in the TV series, real life wasn’t as kind to Clarkson when she and Blackstock divorced, and neither was real life kind to Reba, who was married to Narvel Blackstock, Clarkson’s former father-in-law, for 26 years before they divorced in 2015. Their marriage, too, was based on business. Reba said so herself. ‘My marriage was a situation that was always business,’ McEntire admitted on The Drew Barrymore Show in March 2024. She had a different outlook in 1989 when she said of her then-husband, ‘I love him and I trust him very much … Narvel helps me an awful lot because he is the one who’s out there, who responds, who tells me what works, what doesn’t work, what looks good. I’ve got to have that from somebody I trust and I do trust Narvel, explicitly. That’s why I married him.’

Following their 2015 divorce, Reba was expected to continue to be managed by Narvel, but Reba went into a different business route as she started managing herself through her company, Reba’s Business Incorporated. During her 2024 appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, she told the actress and daytime talk show host that her marriage had ended because business got in the way of their love for each other. She said, ‘[Ours was] a situation that was always business. I think it works for some people. They can be married or have a relationship and work together. Our work was all the time. Our marriage was 26 years. We started out working together in the band. He was part of the band, and then became my manager, later on then my husband, but it was a situation that was always business — whether we were getting ready in the morning, pillow talk, whatever, but it was business.’

A friend of mine once told me that his mom made a rule for their family that when they had family dinners, no talk about work or anything relating to work would be allowed to be discussed. As a family that were all in business together, it was a rule that she made for the family after she realized that all they could talk about was work even after the workday was finished. I found this to be so refreshing. It’s absolutely the right way to go about balancing business and family life when you’re working with your family.

Not following that same rule as the one that my friend’s mom made truly destroyed my husband’s family dynamic. My father-in-law is a business owner. It’s not a family owned business like my friend’s, but a sole proprietorship, owned by my father-in-law. My husband was an employee at the company for many years. He was treated as an employee by my father-in-law all day, everyday, seven days a week. My father-in-law lives and breathes for his business. He thinks about it constantly, and is incapable of making any effort to find different things to discuss other than the operations of his company; at least with my husband. He’s incapable of separating work matters with personal matters, and even when it came to personal matters, my father-in-law would still treat my husband as an employee rather than a son. My husband went no contact with my father-in-law years ago for more reasons than one. That said, however, from the very beginning of our relationship, I’d say even from our very first date, my husband always said that he had absolutely nothing to talk about with his father because everything he had to say was either business related or he wanted to control the narrative to my husband’s life as though he was the boss of it.

My husband and I made it our absolute mission not to allow this type of family dynamic not to ever cross our own home. Luckily, unlike my husband, I had a good example of what a healthy home life SHOULD look like. My dad, too, like my father-in-law, has a business. He’s also had a full-time job on top of operating a business. My whole life, I’ve witnessed my dad tirelessly work on making a living and providing for our family, but I also witnessed him never failing to be be the husband my mom needed him to be, as well as the father I needed. He never brought his work home. He never spoke of work matters when it it came time for us to spend it as a family.

At times, bringing work home is unavoidable. This is especially relevant for people like me who work from home. I’m a blogger/writer, and most days, it’s very hard to separate the time to be working and the time to spend with my family. My husband gets angry a lot that I spend so much time on my phone writing, but I can’t help it if my mind is always going, going, going; constantly filled with creative ideas and thoughts. For him, it was hard as well. Before the pandemic, he worked in a 9-5 office setting. He was lucky enough to be able to keep his job once 2020 hit. It was a big adjustment, for me, at least, to have him home so much and see him that much more. It seemed like we had no time for ourselves. In hindsight, we were lucky that we didn’t have children during those years. During those years, 1,060 parents were surveyed (62.5% of whom teleworked and 47.5% of whom were fathers) for research purposes about their parenting stress and work stress during lockdown. For my husband and I, years after the lockdown years, being parents who work from home has somewhat become a privilege. We get to be more attentive to our son and his needs.

Just as a mere mention in my previous post about Wu Suowei’s relationship with Chi Cheng, their respective parents and their perspectives were discussed. Wu Suowei’s mother secretly knew of her son’s relationship with Chi Cheng and accepted it as it was. She wanted him to be happy. She was just worried that his and Chi Cheng’s life would be hard in the future. She was eager for Wu Suowei to open up about his relationship, but passed away before he could do so. Chi Cheng was good to her, and before Wu Suowei ever knew of his mother’s illness, secretly took the responsibility to care for her.

Chi Cheng’s parents were different. They weren’t as supportive of their son’s choices. In fact, they did absolutely everything they could to get Chi Cheng to do as they wished him to. His parents were traditionalists. They didn’t approve of his sexuality. They wanted him to have a wife and children someday. His father, especially, was very much vocal about his wishes for his son. This caused a rift in the relationship between the father-and-son. Chi Cheng had distanced himself from his family; but even more so from his father. He had no interest in being told how to live his life.

Chi Cheng made it his mission to make something of himself on his own terms; without the slightest of help from his father. His involvement in any manner – big or small – would mean for Chi Cheng to be under his command. Chi Cheng didn’t want that. That was exactly why he started a company with Wu Suowei. He had big dreams for the company, and so did Wu Suowei. They worked well together. They balanced each other out. They meshed together and were very much in sync with what they wanted for the company. Chu Cheng’s father didn’t support this choice. He saw this choice as Chi Chang going against him in retaliation. He didn’t believe in Chi Cheng’s capabilities; belittled him and his ‘little company’.

Seeing Chi Cheng’s story unfold on Revenged Love truly reminded me of my husband’s own background and relationship with his father. Chi Cheng’s reel life very much mirrored my husband’s real life. Even more so, their relationships with their fathers were very much the same. My father-in-law, too, just like Chi Cheng’s father, never approved of my husband’s choices, particularly his relationship with me. My husband’s not gay; but he is with, as society has labeled me, with ‘a cripple’. At least my father-in-law didn’t kidnap me like Chi Cheng’s father kidnapped Wu Suowei because he was so opposed to the relationship.

There didn’t seem to be a father-and-son rift between Brandon and Narvel Blackstock. They were in business together after all, and not as a boss and an employee, but as business partners. That said, mixing business and family requires clear communication, defined roles, and strong boundaries to navigate inherent challenges and leverage potential benefits like shared values and commitment. While it can build stronger relationships and offer opportunities, it risks emotional conflict, potential for favoritism, and unclear lines between personal and professional life. Success hinges on proactive planning, formal contracts, separate finances, and making time for both the business and pure family connections.  To break things down more thoroughly:

Potential Benefits

• Increased Trust and Commitment: Family members often share values, leading to higher levels of commitment and trust within the business. 

• Stronger Relationships: Spending time together in a business setting can strengthen personal bonds and lead to new, shared experiences. 

• Career Opportunities: You can provide jobs or a career path for family members while benefiting from their potentially strong work ethic and knowledge of the family business. 

• Established Networks: Family members can expand the business’s network by bringing in their connections, creating new opportunities. 

Potential Challenges

• Blurred Boundaries: It’s hard to set clear boundaries between work and personal life, which can lead to tension and conflict. 

• Emotional Dynamics: Family can get emotional, making it difficult to be objective about performance or to address mistakes. 

• Favoritism and Conflict: Family members might expect preferential treatment, or potential disagreements can escalate into larger family disputes. 

• Legal and Financial Risks: There’s a greater risk of legal liabilities if mistakes happen, and maintaining separate personal and business finances is crucial but often overlooked. 

Strategies for Success

• Set Clear Boundaries and Roles: Define specific roles and responsibilities for each person, and establish clear rules for communication and decision-making. 

• Formalize Everything: Use formal contracts for family members working in the business and draft agreements that outline terms and expectations. 

• Separate Finances: Keep personal and business finances entirely separate to prevent complications and ensure clear financial accountability. 

• Prioritize Family Relationships: Make a conscious effort to set aside time for family activities and personal connection to nurture the relationship outside of work. 

• Hold Regular Meetings: Schedule regular family and business meetings to discuss important matters and keep everyone informed. 

• Be Prepared to End Business Relationships: If a family relationship is detrimental to the business or if a family member isn’t a good fit, be prepared to suggest alternative service providers or part ways with the business relationship

Though the Blackstock father-and-son duo didn’t have conflict with each other by working together, them having their respective ex-wives did bring out rifts in the marriages. Clarkson and Brandon Blackstock’s divorce was “toxic” and “fraught” due to issues of trust and a high level of conflict, according to sources familiar with the situation. The divorce, filed in 2020 and finalized in 2022, involved legal disputes over finances and custody, with Clarkson being ordered to pay Blackstock a significant lump sum and monthly support. The divorce was marked by emotional difficulty, though Clarkson made efforts to protect her children from the ongoing conflict. To break it down more thoroughly:

Key Aspects of the “Toxic” Divorce:

• High Conflict and Trust Issues: Court documents and sources revealed a high level of conflict and a lack of trust between Clarkson and Blackstock, making co-parenting difficult. 

• Financial Disputes: There were significant legal battles over finances, including Clarkson’s payments to Blackstock for spousal and child support. 

• Custody Matters: The couple shared joint legal custody but Clarkson was granted primary physical custody of their children, with specific arrangements for their care. 

• Emotional Strain: Clarkson described the divorce as a “sh*tty thing” and “painfully sad,” reflecting the emotional toll it took on her. 

• Efforts to Shield Children: Despite the intense and often negative interactions, Clarkson focused on protecting her children, acting as a “mama bear” to shield them from the divorce proceedings. 

Aftermath and Context:

• Blackstock’s New Relationship: A point of contention was Blackstock’s relationship with Clarkson’s former assistant, a detail that contributed to the disappointment felt by Clarkson. 

• Lasting Impact on Clarkson: The public nature of the divorce and the painful details surrounding it significantly impacted Clarkson, even leading to writer’s block for her album. 

• Continued Cooperation (as much as possible): Even with the difficult circumstances, Clarkson maintained a commitment to co-parenting and ensuring a positive environment for her children, modeling a behavior she admired in Blackstock’s own family. 

Since their respective divorces, both Clarkson and Reba have done so well for themselves in their careers – on their own and without the controlling power of their former spouses. They proved to the world, as well as to themselves and, most importantly, to their children, that they could be their own trusted bada**bosses. That’s the most they could do.

When it comes down to their personal lives since their divorces, Reba has moved on with Rex Linn. They just recently became engaged after a 5 year courtship. It’s unknown whether Clarkson moved on with a New Romantic partner as she keeps her personal life mostly to herself. One thing is clear, however, and it’s that everything she does is for her kids. Even in the midst of someone who she thought was the love of her life trying to destroy her career and betrayed her, she still maintained a strong sense of loyalty and humility. I think we, as women, can all earn something from Kelly Clarkson. In my books, she’s an idol; and not just an American Idol. A song that still holds true, years after its release, is ‘Because Of You’, and even more so, not just the original, but the one which featured Reba….