Strange Facts About Kelly Clarkson's Marriage
Kelly Clarkson is one of the most successful recording artists to emerge from the world of American Idol, releasing hit after hit since her debut single, "A Moment Like This," rose to No. 1 in 2002. Her other half, music manager Brandon Blackstock, is also at the top of his career, but though these two seem smitten, that doesn't mean certain quirks in their seemingly perfect relationship haven't raised a few eyebrows. How much do you really know about this couple? Here are some of the stranger facts about Clarkson and Blackstock's marriage.
He was taken when they first met
Clarkson and Blackstock's meet cute was honestly the slowest of slow burns.
"Brandon is my manager's son," Clarkson told the Daily Mail in 2012, the year they finally started dating. They first met in 2006 at a rehearsal for the Academy of Country Music Awards. Clarkson was set to perform "What Hurts the Most" with Rascal Flatts, one of the bands Blackstock managed on tour.
Clarkson recalled that first meeting on a SiriusXM show in 2017 (via People). "Literally, I'm not joking, he walked past us at that time... I was like, ready to take it all off. I just felt something." But nothing happened.
The hold up? Blackstock was still married to his first wife, Melissa Ashworth. "[I] ain't that girl," the multi-Grammy Award winner said. "Honestly, I didn't even talk to him."
He totally misread her signals
This short meeting may have been love at first sight for Clarkson, but Blackstock was definitely not feeling the love. The newly single music manager, who divorced his first wife in 2012, couldn't have been more surprised when they met again at the Super Bowl that same year.
Clarkson performed the national anthem at the game. She later told SiriusXM (via People,) "When I finally confessed that, 'I really dig you,' He was so shocked because he thought I hated him. I hadn't let on that I liked him. Inside I was like, 'Ask me out!' but outside I was like, 'I love being single and coming home every night alone. It's awesome.'"
"I was so nervous because it wasn't that I didn't want to suck for the millions of people watching, I didn't want to suck because I was trying to impress a guy," she joked. "I wanted him to be like, 'Damn.' It had nothing to do with the Super Bowl!"
It sounds like her performance did the trick because they finally got together shortly after the big game. "Six years I was single before this," she told Cosmopolitan in 2013. "I've never been truly loved like I am right now."
She questioned her sexuality before they met
Until the moment she saw her husband, Clarkson thought she might be asexual.
"This isn't a downer to anybody I dated before him, but I'm just going to be real: I never felt like, honesty, sexually attracted to anybody before him," Clarkson told the SiriusXM radio show (via People.) "I honestly thought I was asexual — I'd never been turned on like that in my whole life." Clarkson added, "I was like, 'Oh that's that feeling...okay! That's what they were talking about in Waiting to Exhale.' I just got it. I just didn't have a clue."
Their relationship moved very quickly
Clarkson and Blackstock's romance may have taken years to ignite, but once the cute pair finally got together, the relationship moved fast.
Following that fateful day at the Super Bowl in February 2012, Blackstock popped the question that December, surprising his bride-to-be with a gorgeous canary diamond ring he designed with Johnathon Arndt.
"I'M ENGAGED!!!!! I wanted y'all to know!!" Clarkson tweeted at the time. "Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever."
They scrapped their wedding plans
Clarkson and Blackstock's short engagement became a whirlwind of pregnancy rumors and confusion, particularly when the bride and groom scrapped their big plans in lieu of an intimate elopement on a farm in Tennessee.
"We have to fit our romantic life into our schedule," Clarkson explained to Us Weekly, just before the two tied the knot. "It'll be both a wedding and an elopement. I like it! We are just doing a small, little wedding — me and Brandon and the kids. That is it. All we have time for! But we're happy with that. We just wanted to make it about us."
It appears that their private country wedding became the perfect way to kick off their new life together. "I'm officially Mrs. Blackstock," Clarkson posted on Instagram, along with a picture that showcased her gorgeous Temperley London wedding gown.
They've been plagued by cheating rumors
Only two months into their marriage, and already expecting their first child together, the Blackstocks' honeymoon stage was unceremoniously cut short when they were hit by a round of nasty cheating rumors.
"Short and simple: Brandon has been cheating on Kelly (with me) for the past 5 months," an unnamed woman told TheDirty.com in December 2013 (via the Daily Mail). "I really hope his wife keeps her eye on him because he's not the great man that she thinks he is." A second woman claimed she was pregnant with Blackstock's child following an alleged one night stand, adding, "This guy is complete scum."
Clarkson was quick to defend her man and her marriage. "Keep hearing random rumors of me & Brandon splitting or that's he's cheating on me. Stop with all the lying please #aintnobodygottimeforthat," she tweeted. "False rumors don't bother me & Brandon but they do affect the lives of our 12 & 7 yr old. They're kids & don't get that people can print lies," she added, in reference to her stepchildren.
Even Blackstock's ex-wife (and mother of the aforementioned kids) stepped in to slam the infidelity hearsay. "This is ridiculous," Ashworth told Radar Online, adding, "I adore Kelly and Brandon as a couple, so if I say anything it's going to be positive."
They have a very cordial blended family
While many blended families struggle to get along, Clarkson revels in her role as a stepmom to Savannah and Seth, his children with Ashworth.
"We all live together and everything. It's so different, but it's perfect. They're awesome, and I actually really dig the mom thing," Clarkson told Ryan Seacrest in 2013 (via People.) "We all work really well together, but I'm totally my mom. My mom was a hard mom. I'm probably that mom."
The married pair are also parents to daughter River Rose and son Remington.
James Corden threw them an impromptu dinner date
Clarkson and Blackstock are so busy being loving parents and successful collaborators that it's hard to find time for themselves. Luckily, one James Corden decided to fix this during Clarkson's "Carpool Karaoke" appearance in 2017.
"Do you get to spend a lot of time together outside of work, the two of you?" the Late Late Show host asks Clarkson in the segment. She replies, "I think it's difficult because obviously, I work a lot and I'm a mom, but we try. Did my husband talk to you? Is this an intervention?"
"I thought maybe we could arrange a date night for you and Brandon right now, so you get in the back of the car, just wait right there," Corden says. He then proceeds to set up a dining table, complete with a rose, candle, chocolate-covered strawberries, and sparkling apple cider. Blackstock climbs in as a violinist serenades the couple.
"Okay, it's a date night. The kids aren't here," Clarkson quips, while Blackstock jokes, "I feel like we're making a porn, there's a lot of cameras."
Yeah, this is definitely a must-watch.
Parenthood can be bittersweet
Clarkson's song "Piece by Piece" beautifully documents what it means to see Blackstock be a great father to their kids and a loving husband to her. However, that reality can sometimes feel bittersweet, since she never had that growing up with her estranged dad.
"Watching my husband love on his daughter all the time, you know, go to her events and just be there and, like, be present is, like, hard to watch but beautiful to watch," she told Ryan Seacrest after her emotional American Idol performance of the song (via Bustle).
"I don't even think I understood the gravity of [my relationship with my father] until I was pregnant with [River Rose]," Clarkson later explained when she called into On Air with Ryan Seacrest. "I was like, 'I cannot imagine not seeing this kid to his or her full potential and just seeing what she's going to do, what she's going to be like.'"
"I'm not angry about it anymore," Clarkson added. "I'm 33 years old, I'm a grown woman. But it's more of that thing where you can try your hardest to salvage relationships — and I did — but at the end of the day, if you keep getting hurt by someone because they just don't know how to properly love people, it's just not worth it."
She still hangs out with her former mother-in-law
In case you missed this weird connection, for a while there, Reba McEntire was Clarkson's mother-in-law. The country music icon was married to Blackstock's father, Narvel, for 26 years, before the two divorced in 2015.
However, the "Because of You" duo have remained close since the split. Clarkson and McEntire not only get together for family game nights and holidays, but have also continued to collaborate musically. Clarkson lent her vocals to McEntire's version of "Softly and Tenderly" in 2016.
That same year, Clarkson spoke candidly about their relationship on Watch What Happens Live , revealing that they text, talk shop, and share videos with the kids.
Her father-in-law and husband manage her career
When Clarkson and Blackstock first met, it was through her longtime manager, who also happens to be Blackstock's father, Narvel. Eventually, Brandon took over managing his wife's career, which weirdly enough, did wonders for their marriage.
"It's so great because he understands every part of my day so I don't have to explain that to someone," Clarkson told People in 2016. "He knows why I might be in a great mood or a sad mood or why things are hard. At the same time we do have these moments where I'm like, 'Okay, you're managing me right now. And he will be like, 'Okay, you're being that really artsy person that's like up and down right now.'"
"So we do have to call each other out but we're pretty communicative, which is key," Clarkson said. "We pull the reins on each other when we feel like we need to. But we're definitely yin and yang. We're different personalities. With this specific job, it's such a busy job. It's 24/7, so if I weren't [managed by him], I wouldn't be with him. So it kind of makes sense. I think that's why Céline [Dion] did it. I think that's why Mariah [Carey] did it. I know a lot of artists do that because it makes sense."
She's really open about their love life
Clarkson is known to be pretty candid when it comes to her life in the bedroom. "He makes me feel so sexy," the "Walk Away" singer told Entertainment Tonight in 2017. "I always make fun of him, like, 'Why are you touching my behind in public?' He'll like, goose me or something, somewhere, and I'm like, 'What are you doing?!' but I really like it."
She dished about their love life to Redbook, "To keep it family appropriate, let's say we're just a lot more active than other couples. I'm a person who loves change. He loves spontaneity."
"When I met Brandon, I wasn't looking for a friend. I have a lot of great friends!" Clarkson went on. "I was looking for a lover. I had never found someone I was truly passionate about, who I wanted to stay in bed with all day. The fact that I did, well ... I was going to latch on and take advantage of that."
They both forgot their anniversary...twice
Clarkson and Blackstock obviously make a great team, but sometimes their busy schedules conflict with important moments in their personal lives.
"We have forgotten two out of four of our anniversaries," Clarkson told Entertainment Tonight in 2017. "But the great thing about us is we collectively do it. It's not like one of us forgets and one of us remembers. We both epically fail."
That year in particular, the couple was completely distracted by the release of Clarkson's holiday hit, "Christmas Eve." After wishing her husband a "Happy Christmas release song day" that morning, "He was like, 'Or happy anniversary,'" she said. "I freaked out. I panicked like I'm the only one who forgot, but he forgot too."
Turns out Blackstock was reminded about the big day by social media posts from fans! Clarkson shook the whole thing off. "We 're so happy we just forget," she said. "Every day is an anniversary."
They're still total relationship goals
This romantic pair may have their share of quirks, but at the end of the day, Clarkson and Blackstock are total #RelationshipGoals. Apart from constantly gushing about her man during interviews, the "Love So Soft" singer's Instagram feed is filled to the brim with sweet and funny moments.
Some of our faves include the pair accidentally wearing matching shirts, adorably celebrating Remy's first birthday, wishing fans a Happy Thanksgiving, and this gorgeous snapshot from their fairytale wedding. We dare you to try not to audibly aww at this photo of Blackstock with their two youngest. We can't even handle the cute!