It’s been nearly four years since Kelly Clarkson filed to end her marriage to Brandon Blackstock and two years since the ink dried on their divorce settlement. But while the former couple may have come to terms on custody of their two children and ownership of their ranch in Montana, the legal battle continues into a fifth year regarding her past business dealings with her ex-father-in-law Narvel Blackstock’s Starstruck Management. Clarkson has filed a new cross-complaint to possibly increase the $2.6 million her ex-husband was ordered to pay late last year.
After the Blackstocks sued Kelly Clarkson in 2020 for over $5 million in unpaid commissions, the American Idol champion countersued, alleging that Starstruck had violated the law by acting as a talent agency in those dealings. The court sided with Clarkson, and now she’s asking them to determine if she’s owed more, suing for judicial intervention regarding their interactions for the entirety of their working relationship, per Rolling Stone. According to the filing:
Based on the wrongful acts and conduct of Starstruck, all agreements between the parties, should be declared void and unenforceable, no monies should be paid by cross-complainants to Starstruck, and all monies previously paid by cross-complainants to Starstruck should be disgorged from Starstruck, forthwith.
Brandon Blackstock had appealed the 2023 ruling, Rolling Stone reports, saying his family and the Starstruck firm were entitled to a full trial, as they allegedly claimed they weren’t allowed to call witnesses and present evidence in their defense, per OK! magazine. That request is still pending, but in the meantime Blackstock’s lawyer Bryan Freedman responded to Kelly Clarkson’s latest legal move, telling Rolling Stone:
It is morally, ethically and legally wrong to attempt to get monies back from your ex-husband who not only helped her as her manager but who used those earnings on their children and Kelly and Brandon’s lifestyle during the marriage.
Narvel Blackstock sued Kelly Clarkson in 2020, shortly after she filed for divorce from his son. He alleged that she was in violation of their oral contract and owed over $5 million in unpaid commissions from her role as a coach on The Voice, partnerships with Norwegian Cruise Lines and Wayfair, and hosting the Billboard Music Awards.
Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower ruled in November 2023 that those deals should have been handled by Kelly Clarkson’s talent agency Creative Artists Agency, and Brandon Blackstock was ordered to refund the money that had been paid to him for those deals — a total of over $2.6 million.
The commissioner, however, ruled in Brandon Blackstock’s favor in regards to his work getting her The Kelly Clarkson Show, saying that deal was executed “at the request of CAA.” Blackstock also continues to receive over $45,000 a month from his ex-wife in child support payments, though the $115,000 she was paying in spousal support supposedly expired in January 2024.
We’ll have to see how the courts rule in Kelly Clarkson’s latest filing, and if the legal battles between these two will ever be put to rest.
