Kelly Clarkson's hope for a perfect family with manager's son Brandon Blackstock shattered as their relationship crumbled, marked by financial disputes. Now, breaking her silence, Kelly fights back against her ex-husband with support from Blake Shelton.
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00:00 America's sweetheart Kelly Clarkson is going through a divorce from hell,
00:04 and her ex-husband will stop at nothing to take her down.
00:07 I was destroyed, like on the ground, crying.
00:11 Kelly thought she had finally found true love when she married Brandon,
00:15 but was he just using her?
00:17 He quit his career after they broke up,
00:20 and now he's asking for spousal support and custody of their kids.
00:24 And even Blake Shelton, who was managed by Brandon, is taking Kelly's side.
00:29 Get your head out of your a**.
00:31 But how did Kelly go from having a perfect family to living this nightmare?
00:36 My biggest dream was to have a successful marriage and successful family
00:43 in whatever form that was going to be for me.
00:45 You married your husband, Brandon, in 2013?
00:48 He was the son of your manager.
00:50 I had had a thing for him, like, you know, he was a successful guy,
00:54 and it's very hard for women in this industry to date
00:58 and meet a guy that doesn't have some kind of inferior complex,
01:01 you know, with your spotlight situation.
01:03 So it's very hard to find someone that is very comfortable in their skin
01:07 and can take that.
01:08 But he grew up with it.
01:09 It was so attractive to find someone that was so breezy.
01:13 Kelly wanted to build her perfect family with Brandon
01:16 because she grew up with an absent father.
01:18 Everyone deserves a great dad, and everyone deserves that moment,
01:22 and that's why we crave it.
01:24 It's because you want that.
01:25 You see it with other people, and you're like,
01:27 "Oh, man, I deserve that. Like, why can't I have that?"
01:29 But, like, not everyone gets that.
01:31 Have you stayed in touch with your father?
01:33 If someone presents such a cancerous environment
01:35 and then just keeps hurting you,
01:36 you should just not have that person in your life.
01:38 Hurt and abandoned by her dad, Kelly struggled in love.
01:42 So I almost didn't know what to search for in a man.
01:44 I was very much a gypsy at heart,
01:46 and I just never thought I'd get married or have kids.
01:49 And I found this man that is so loving,
01:51 and so it's like piece by piece, he picked up all the pieces of me,
01:54 you know, put them back together.
01:55 I didn't even know men like that existed.
01:57 So I'm very much lucked out.
01:58 I am not alone for the first time for Thanksgiving and Christmas,
02:01 and I'm very happy.
02:02 And it was Kelly's friend Blake who pushed his manager, Brandon,
02:05 to make his love for her official.
02:07 You need to get your head out of your ass
02:10 and ask this girl to marry you.
02:11 Kelly and Brandon sealed their big day
02:13 with a passionate kiss in this stunning wedding shot.
02:16 Kel shared the news with a tweet, quote,
02:19 "I'm officially Mrs. Blackstock."
02:21 Kelly trusted Brandon and let him become her manager
02:24 because she thought he supported her dreams.
02:26 There was no point where I didn't think he believed in me as an artist
02:30 or believed what I was capable of.
02:32 Honestly, it's kind of like perfect.
02:34 You know, he travels and he knows the business,
02:36 and I don't have to worry about it or explain myself away
02:39 that I have to go to work or...
02:40 Over the next seven years,
02:42 Kelly built the family she'd always wanted.
02:44 The last time you were here, you were very pregnant.
02:46 Yes.
02:47 And now you have a very adorable little boy.
02:49 I'm such a mom, I can't talk about my kids.
02:51 I love you so much.
02:52 Happy birthday, baby. I love you more than you'll ever know.
02:55 But behind closed doors, Kelly's marriage was falling apart.
02:59 Love makes you do incredible things and incredibly stupid things.
03:02 I'm a fixer, and I think everything is salvageable.
03:05 You can't help someone if they're not willing to climb up there with you.
03:08 Like, this isn't happiness, you know, for both of us.
03:11 I'm exhausted from trying.
03:13 This should not be this difficult.
03:15 And things got so ugly that Kelly gave up
03:18 on the thing that mattered the most to her.
03:20 I was on a flight home from dropping off my kids with him,
03:23 and I just still had been on the fence,
03:25 but it just had gotten so brutal that I was like,
03:27 "I don't think there's any light left."
03:29 I looked at my daughter and I thought,
03:32 "Would I want this marriage for my daughter?
03:34 Would I want my daughter to be in this position?"
03:37 Like, no.
03:38 So, like, why would I want it for me?
03:41 Kelly Clarkson shocked everyone with her divorce announcement
03:43 from husband, Brandon Blackstock.
03:45 Kelly was devastated to see the breakdown of the family
03:48 she'd worked so hard to build.
03:50 It rips you apart, you know,
03:52 whenever you fall in love with someone and it doesn't work.
03:56 I was destroyed, like, on the ground crying.
04:00 Because that's a loss.
04:02 That's a death.
04:03 Honestly, you grieve something that you thought would be forever.
04:06 When you're in pain and it's so deep, you can't describe.
04:10 I looked at my therapist and I was like,
04:12 "Just couldn't stop sobbing."
04:14 I was like, "I cannot do this."
04:15 And there was a friend who could understand Kelly's pain
04:18 because he'd gone through it too.
04:20 Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert are getting a divorce
04:23 after four years of marriage.
04:25 All this darkness and the breakup.
04:27 You get to a point where you just gotta be the past and move on.
04:31 While Kelly focused on protecting her kids,
04:34 Brandon came back fighting for money.
04:36 He is requesting a total of $301,000 a month
04:42 in spousal maintenance and $2 million in attorney's fees.
04:47 That's a lot of money.
04:48 Brandon Blackstock is demanding all that money after quitting his career.
04:53 Different requests that we have seen.
04:55 You gotta ask yourself, "Was it really all that great?"
04:58 And just how bad things may have been.
05:00 Brandon is trying to get the kids too, and Kelly might lose everything.
05:05 Kelly wasn't gonna let Brandon take any more from her, and she fought back.
05:09 What I'm dealing with is hard,
05:11 because it involves more than just my heart.
05:13 It involves a lot of little hearts.
05:15 Kelly Clarkson apparently is saying she was tricked out of millions of dollars.
05:19 Kelly Clarkson claims Brandon Blackstock had defrauded her
05:23 by charging her an astronomical amount of money for fees.
05:27 The judge sided with Kelly, and when it came to Brandon quitting his career,
05:31 he wrote, "The evidence in this case shows that after the date of separation,
05:36 respondent made a very deliberate choice to change his life and become a rancher full-time."
05:41 Kelly Clarkson gets another win as she's been awarded
05:44 the primary physical custody of her children.
05:46 And Blake supported Kelly like a true friend.
05:50 Blake Shelton is no longer working with Kelly's ex, Brandon Blackstock.
05:53 He is one hard-headed dude.
05:55 She is the best thing that ever happened to him.
05:57 Blake, he's actually the nicest human ever, and he's like the greatest big brother.
06:01 Kelly came into my life 10 years ago, and she has been a powerful presence in my life.
06:08 Despite how Kelly felt about her ex,
06:10 she wanted her kids to still feel like they had a family.
06:13 We have two little kids watching us, and you don't want to set that example for like,
06:17 "This is what they're going to set the bar for."
06:18 I want them to aim higher.
06:19 We know the best thing here is to protect our children and their little heart.
06:23 By learning that you don't need to stay in an unhealthy relationship to have a perfect family,
06:28 Kelly came back stronger than ever.
06:30 You know, there were several things that I would have loved to avoid in life,
06:33 but then I wouldn't have learned that lesson that I obviously needed to learn.
06:36 And I've done a lot of work to get out of it.
06:38 You're reminded that, yes, this is a moment.
06:41 Like, it's not forever.
06:42 Congratulations on the new album, Chemistry.
06:44 I feel like this music is a little bit of your journal.
06:48 That's how I heal, and I process, and I figure out where I'm at.
06:51 Man, when you find yourself again, it's really nice.
06:53 Piece by piece, I found out my hero is me.
06:56 (upbeat music)
06:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]