Kelly Clarkson said she is postponing the rest of her “Studio Session” concerts in Las Vegas this month as her family faces a difficult chapter.
Clarkson, a Grammy-winning singer, said Wednesday on Instagram that she was postponing the August shows so she could support her children as their father, her ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, has been unwell.
“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 wrote.
Clarkson and Blackstock divorced in March 2022, two years after they announced their separation. The couple share two children: daughter River Rose, who was born in 2014, and son Remington Alexander, born in 2016. Clarkson lives with her children in New York City, where she also hosts a daytime talk show, “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”
She seemed to address her ex-husband through her music a number of times, both in her 2023 songs “Mine” and “Me” and on her talk show, when she revised the lyrics to Olivia Rodrigo’s song “abcdefu” during one of her 2023 performances.
“Forget you and your dad / And the fact you got half and my broken heart / Turned that [expletive] into art,” she sang, which seemed to be a reference to her divorce settlement, in which she had to issue a one-time payment of over $1 million to her ex-husband, along with monthly spousal support (until Jan. 31, 2024) and child support payments that amounted to over $160,000.
In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in June 2023, Clarkson said the split, in the end, was “freeing.”
“It’s incredibly sad, and it’s a dark place — fetal position on the floor crying — and there’s so much loss with that, and I never experienced grief like that,” she said.
“We got to let each other go. This is not working. This is not going to pan out, and it’s not working for either of us.”
Clarkson made headlines this year for her absences from her talk show. From late February through March, she stepped away occasionally. During that time, guest hosts including Simu Liu, Roy Wood Jr. and even “TODAY’s” Willie Geist filled in.
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