Kelly Clarkson Gives Ex-Husband Brandon Blackstock 5 Percent of Montana Ranch
Kelly Clarkson and her ex-husband, former talent manager Brandon Blackstock, have reached an agreement over one of the most difficult aspects of their divorce. People reports that the 39-year-old pop superstar, television personality and sometimes country singer has agreed to give Blackstock, 45, just over 5 percent of the Montana ranch that has been a central issue in their split.
According to People, Clarkson has given Blackstock 5.12 percent of the ranch in Montana where the couple passed the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic with their kids before Clarkson filed for divorce in June of 2020. People has obtained documents filed in a Los Angeles court on Thursday (Jan. 20).
Those court documents place the value of Blackstock's percentage at $908,800 and value the ranch at $17,750,000. The documents also specifically state that Blackstock does not lay claim to any ownership rights of the property contiguous to the ranch, of which Clarkson is the sole owner.
The legal filing is the latest in a series of disputes over the Montana property, where Blackstock has been living since the couple announced their split.
As TMZ reported in October of 2021, Blackstock had contended in previous legal filings that the ranch was marital property that belonged to both parties jointly, but a judge decided differently, handing down a ruling that the ranch falls within the scope of the couple's prenuptial agreement, which has been upheld in court despite Blackstock's attempts to challenge it. That agreement states that whatever each party acquired during the marriage belongs solely to that person, and the judge decreed that Clarkson is the sole owner of the ranch, as she paid for it and is the sole titleholder.
The couple's divorce dragged on for more than a year, but on Sept. 24, 2021, news broke that a judge had declared both of the parties legally single in August. That decision was in response to a legal request Clarkson filed with the court in July asking to be declared legally single amid her divorce, and she also requested that the court restore her legal name.
Blackstock and Clarkson wed in October of 2013. They have two children together, River Rose and Remington Alexander. A judge granted Clarkson temporary custody of both children in November of 2020.
In July of 2021, a judge ordered Clarkson to pay Blackstock $150,000 in spousal support and $45,601 in child support each month in a temporary arrangement until a final divorce settlement was worked out. The documents revealed on Sept. 24 stated that the couple's “marital or domestic partnership status” was slated to legally end on Jan. 7, 2022.
Clarkson has been moving on from the marriage in multiple ways. The couple's former 20,000-square-foot mansion in Tennessee sold on June 17, and Clarkson has most recently sold her former mansion in California for just over $8 million. She also purchased a stunning new luxury home in an exclusive area of Los Angeles in July of 2022, where she's been living as she focuses on her television work on the Kelly Clarkson Show, as well as her role as a coach on The Voice.