Everything Kelly Clarkson Has Said About Her Years-Long Relationship with Ex-Husband Brandon Blackstock

Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband Brandon Blackstock died at the age of 48 on Aug. 7. 

On Aug. 6, the singer-songwriter revealed the talent manager and former stepson of Reba McEntire was ill, and that she’d be postponing her Las Vegas residency to spend time with their children: daughter River and son Remington “Remy.”

“It is with great sadness that we share the news that Brandon Blackstock has passed away,” a rep for the family told PEOPLE in a statement. “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.”

The American Idol winner filed for divorce from Blackstock in June 2020 after nearly seven years of marriage.

The exes were entangled in a lengthy legal battle surrounding spousal support, custody of their two children and Clarkson’s Montana ranch. Clarkson won primary custody of their children in November 2020 and the former couple eventually settled their divorce in March 2022. Blackstock was ordered to leave the ranch by June 2022.

In the summer of 2023, the Grammy winner and her children moved to New York ahead of the fifth season of The Kelly Clarkson Show.

Here’s everything Kelly Clarkson has said about her late ex-husband Brandon Blackstock, from her initial attraction to the talent manager to their “difficult” divorce.

Clarkson knew she would “end up” with Blackstock after meeting him

When Clarkson first spotted Blackstock backstage at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2006, something clicked immediately.

“I’m like, ‘Like that guy — hot, normal and funny,’” she later told PEOPLE in February 2013. “I’m gonna end up with him. I know it.”

At the time, Blackstock was married, but Clarkson couldn’t shake the gut feeling that there was something special about him. “Literally, I’m not joking, he walked past us … I was ready to take it all off. I just felt something,” she said. “Sometimes it sucks dating because it’s so many wrong ones until you get the right one.”

Years passed, and it wasn’t until the Super Bowl in 2012 that the two reconnected — both newly single — and finally gave that initial spark a real shot.

By early 2013, their relationship had blossomed. Clarkson was madly in love and planning a wedding. “I didn’t know life could be this happy,” she told PEOPLE that February. “If somebody would’ve sent me ‘Don’t Rush’ … I would’ve laughed in their face. I would’ve been like, ‘That fairy-tale song you just sent me? I can’t sing about that. It doesn’t exist.’”

Clarkson said she never felt “attracted” to anyone before him

In October 2017, Clarkson opened up about how intense her attraction to Blackstock had been from the start. “This isn’t a downer to anybody I dated before him, but I’m just going to be real: I never felt like, honestly, sexually attracted to anybody before him,” she said. “I honestly thought I was asexual — I’d never been turned on like that in my whole life. I was like, ‘Oh that’s that feeling … OK! That’s what they were talking about in Waiting to Exhale. I just got it. I just didn’t have a clue.’”

“Mr. Manly Hunter Pilot Guy is everything I ever wanted in a guy,” she had said years earlier, back in 2013. That same year, she even took flying lessons for him. “The first 15 minutes I was like, ‘I’m never doing this again!’ I had a Vulcan death grip on this joystick-looking thing. But by the end, I was sold.”

The proposal was perfectly on brand for the low-key couple. “We always play darts and drink beer and listen to vinyl. That’s our thing,” Clarkson said. One night at home, she thanked him for being so good to her: “I just said, ‘Thanks for being an awesome guy. I’ve never been loved properly by a man.’ Then all of a sudden he leans in and kisses me and he’s on his knee. Still at this point I’m like, ‘Did he drop something?’ ”

“I was like, ‘Are you gonna put the ring on?’ And he looked up and was like, ‘Well, usually at some point the girl says yes or no.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh! Obviously yes!’ ”

She bonded with Blackstock’s two children from a previous marriage

The couple married in October 2013. Clarkson also became a stepmom to Blackstock’s two children from his previous marriage, Savannah and Seth.

“I wasn’t really into kids, but Savannah and Seth are so awesome,” Clarkson said at the time. “We’re gonna wait a bit, obviously, but we’ll totally have a kid.”

Blackstock became a grandfather in 2022 when his eldest child, Savannah, gave birth to a son, Lake.

Blackstock encouraged her to host her own show

“I finally feel like for once, I don’t have to be so independent,” she once told PEOPLE. “He’s someone who looks out for me. I always wanted that in a man. It’s the most exhilarating feeling. And the most safe feeling too.”

By September 2019, as she launched The Kelly Clarkson Show, the two were juggling marriage, parenting and working together. “Even the show here, he has his own office. I have my own office,” she said. “And he’s always on the phone … we do a really good job of being like, ‘I need some me time.’”

It was also Blackstock who encouraged her to take on the challenge of hosting a daily talk show. “My husband is a really good salesman on ideas,” she said. “He’s just really good at pointing out things that will push me out of my comfort zone, which is why we’re really great partners in life as well.”

Still, she never lost her sense of identity. “I have an awesome life, and I can hold this down on my own,” she told PEOPLE that same month. “I learned that from my mother. She depended a lot, financially, on a man. I don’t depend on him, and he doesn’t depend on me. We made our own way in our own right, and I think that’s what really helps, too.”

Clarkson called their 2020 split “difficult” — but stayed committed to their blended family

“It just came out of nowhere,” a source close to the couple told PEOPLE. “Their marriage was so strong.”

That summer, Clarkson told fans, “My life has been a little bit of a dumpster.” She later added, “It’s so hard on everyone… it’s just a really, really hard difficult thing.”

Even as the marriage ended, she remained deeply committed to her blended family. “She’s always thought of Seth and Savannah as her own too, and she has a special relationship with both of them,” a source told PEOPLE in June 2020.

By 2023, Clarkson had poured all of it into music. “You feel alone and it’s just a blessing to be able to have that outlet for those emotions that are overwhelming,” she said. “The whole record is basically every emotion you experience from the beginning of a relationship to the end of what it is now. It’s been very therapeutic for me. It’s very honest.”

In April 2023, she admitted the emotions hadn’t faded entirely. “It’s hard. I think it’s the most ridiculous thing sometimes when something doesn’t work out and you’re in a relationship and you’re so deeply in love,” she said on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “I think I might always love that person. I don’t know if it goes away.”

By August 2023, she had made peace with where things stood. “I never want to get married again,” Clarkson said. “I’ve already been in love. I am not looking for a stepfather for my children.”