Kelly Clarkson might be expecting ex-husband Brandon Blackstock to get coal in his stocking this Christmas.
The singer released the official album visualizer for her upcoming album, When Christmas Comes Around … Again, on Wednesday, December 18, and in the video, four stockings hang over a fireplace. The one on the left reads “Mom,” seemingly referring to Clarkson, 42. The next two are for the two kids she shares with Blackstock, 48: River, 10, and Remy, 8.
The final stocking, in the place that would logically belong to Blackstock, simply reads, “Nope.”
Clarkson and Blackstock, her former music manager, split in 2020 after a seven-year marriage. They then engaged in a years-long legal battle over custody, assets and spousal support.
Keeping it real. Kelly Clarkson surprised some when she filed for divorce from Brandon Blackstock on June 4, 2020, after nearly seven years of marriage. At the time, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that the former couple “clashed on so many levels and being in quarantine together [amid the coronavirus pandemic] heightened their problems […]
Now single, Clarkson also may have just been saying “nope” to having another man in her life — something she said she is not interested in for now.
“Both my kids are not [into it and] they constantly bring it up, ‘Please, we don’t want you to be with anybody else,’” Clarkson said during a recent radio appearance on KOST 103.5. “They’re young, so it’s hard to picture their mom with someone else other than their dad.”
She continued, “I’m not looking for it. I’m not looking for a ‘you’ for Christmas, but I think the hope of that is really beautiful and magical, and imagination station is a wonderful thing.”
And while the time may come where she eventually begins dating, she has no plans to ever walk down the aisle again. In fact, she revealed to People in January that she never wanted to get married the first time.
Matt Baron/Shutterstock Crushing coparenting! More than one year after Kelly Clarkson and Brandon Blackstock finalized their divorce, they have found a rhythm in raising their two children. “She has a great coparenting relationship with Brendan, but things haven’t always been easy in terms of their personal relationship,” a source exclusively tells Us Weekly of the “Miss Independent” […]
“[Blackstock] had children, a religious background, and it was important, I think, for him. But I’ve never been that person,” she said.
“Dating sucks. It’s so awkward. I was single until I was, like, 30, and I forgot how really good at that I am,” she added. “I told a friend [that my future partner] would have to be an individual that brings their own life to the table without needing anything from me. It’s far more romantic to say, ‘I want you, but I don’t need anything.’”
Clarkson has been candid about the emotional impact her divorce has had on her. She considered her 2023 studio album, Chemistry, to be a way of “taking my power back.”
“I cannot express how appreciative I feel for having that kind of healthy outlet. Because the level of depression and things that come with divorce or grieving is extraordinarily hard,” she said. “You feel alone, and it’s just a blessing to be able to have that outlet for those emotions that are overwhelming.”