From Hollywood Glitz to Heartbreak: The Untold Final Days of Brandon Blackstock, Kelly Clarkson’s Ex, Revealed
Added on August 7, 2025 inMusic News Cards
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It’s funny how the stars can throw curveballs—or, if you’re a Leo feeling the cosmic pressure this week, straight-up asteroids—into our carefully scheduled lives . Just when August rolled in, promising glitzy Las Vegas residencies and more Studio Sessions, the universe had a plot twist even Mercury couldn’t retrograde out of: the heartbreaking loss of Brandon Blackstock . Forty-eight years young, a father, manager, ex-husband to Kelly Clarkson, and a familiar name behind the scenes in Nashville and Hollywood, Brandon’s departure after a quiet, three-year battle with cancer feels surreal… almost as if the cosmos forgot to mention it in today’s horoscope . Am I alone in thinking we all took for granted that, like a persistent chorus, some people would just keep showing up, show after show, season after season?
What do you do with all the love, the memories—the songs—they leave behind? Right now, I find myself wondering if today’s Taurus moon is making us all extra nostalgic, or if grief just always casts its own lunar shadow . Keep reading as we peel back the curtain on Brandon’s life, his enduring impact, and what happens when life asks us, one more time, to pick up the pieces . LEARN MORE.
Talent manager and Kelly Clarkson‘s ex-husband Brandon Blackstock has died after a battle with cancer. He was 48.
“It is with great sadness that we share the news that Brandon Blackstock has passed away,” Blackstock’s management company Starstruck, founded by his father, Narvel, said in a statement posted to its Instagram account. “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 had announced late Wednesday night that she was postponing the August dates of her Las Vegas residency because Blackstock “had been ill,” with the singer saying she needed “to be fully present” for the two children she shared with him,
“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,” Clarkson wrote on Instagram Wednesday night. “I am sincerely sorry to everyone who bought tickets to the shows and I so appreciate your grace, kindness and understanding.”
Clarkson, who had four more shows in August planned as part of her Studio Sessions series, was set to continue her residency in November. She had originally delayed the start of her residency by a week, due to vocal issues.
“We have been working 24/7 to make Studio Sessions the most intimate and extraordinary experience with and for my incredible fans,” she wrote on Instagram just hours after the shows were set to kick off on July 4. “I am beyond grateful that you always show up for me and I am devastated to have to postpone tonight and tomorrow’s opening at Caesars. The prep and rehearsals have taken a toll on my voice.”
Clarkson had also been absent from a number of episodes of her eponymous NBC daytime talk show earlier this year, prompting concern from fans as guest hosts filled in.
Blackstock and Clarkson were married from 2013-2020 before divorcing and share two children.
Blackstock also previously served as Clarkson’s manager and managed Blake Shelton, who is still listed as a Starstruck Entertainment client on the firm’s website.
“I wouldn’t have hired Brandon to be my manager if I didn’t see first-hand how great he is at that and how much he cares about [fellow client] Blake [Shelton],” Clarkson told Marie Claire in 2018. “And the way that [Blake’s] career has blown up, I would have hired Brandon regardless. He’s really talented at what he does and his mind really does work in a completely different way.”
Clarkson and Blackstock first met at a rehearsal for the Academy of Country Music Awards in May 2006.
“This guy walks by, making everybody laugh. I said, ‘I’m gonna end up with him. I know it,’” Clarkson told People in 2013.
Clarkson’s 2015 hit “Piece by Piece” was inspired by her relationship with Blackstock and how it served as a contrast to her dynamic with her father.
“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 at 6 years old,” she sings. “And you know, he never walks away / He never asks for money / He takes care of me / He loves me / Piece by piece, he restored my faith / That a man can be kind, and a father could stay.”
After she and Blackstock split, Clarkson tweaked the lyrics to her hit when she performed it live and looked back on the track in a 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“When I wrote ‘Piece by Piece,’ it was a very hopeful song. I wasn’t able to say everything at the time. A lot of that song is about what I desired and what I hoped and what I saw in someone. And it turns out I might not be singing that song again. It turns out that I maybe did marry into what I didn’t want to do in the first place,” Clarkson said. “So it’s OK now. It wasn’t for a couple years, but I think that’s the thing about seeing red flags and seeing things that aren’t healthy and recognizing that and not holding on to hope and potential all the time in a relationship. So just a lot of lessons learned, which is, I guess, all you can hope for, getting that it wasn’t all for naught.”
On her 2023 album Chemistry, Clarkson alluded to “Piece by Piece” in her track “Me.”
“I don’t need somebody to hold me / Don’t need somebody to love me / Don’t need somebody to pick these pieces up,” she sings. “I put together my broken / Let go of the pain I’ve been holdin’ / Don’t need to need somebody / When I got me.”
In addition to his children with Clarkson, Blackstock is survived by his two children from a previous marriage and one grandchild.
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