Following the death of Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, on Aug. 7, new details have emerged that appear to explain why the divorce has been described as especially difficult and devastating for the singer.
It turns out that Blackstock found a “soulmate” and “partner in life and business” before he his death at age 48, after a three-year struggle with melanoma. That person was Brittany Marie Jones, who has been identified as Clarkson’s former production assistant, according to People magazine.
Jones worked as Clarkson’s production assistant in Nashville from 2016 to 2018, People reported, citing her LinkedIn profile. Then in 2018, she began working for Blackstock, a talent manager for Nashville music artists, as his executive management assistant. However, she continued to worked for Clarkson, managing her “day-to-day artist schedule” on the Los Angeles set of “The Kelly Clarkson show.
But two years later, in June 2020, the same month Clarkson filed for divorce, Jones stopped working for the “American Idol” alum, according to People. Instead, she became a became an executive assistant for V Bar B Cattle Co., a Montana ranch owned by Blackstock.
A representative for Clarkson did not respond to People’s request for comment about Blackstock’s relationship with her former assistant.
But the romance was revealed by people close to him. Following his death, Jones father, Larry, posted a tribute to him on Facebook, writing, “Yesterday we lost a good man Brandon Blackstock,” People reported. He described Blackstock as “my daughter’s soulmate” and said he “considered him my son.”
Blackstock’s obituary said that Jones was his “beautiful and loving partner in life and business.” It said the Texas native decided to leave the music business in Nashville after 20 years and find “his way back to the mountains and the cowboy way of life” in Butte, Montana.
There “along with his beautiful and loving partner in life and business, Brittney Marie Jones,” Blackstock started building a life and new companies, including a livestock auction and rodeo, which will “live on as his legacy,” the obituary said
The obituary mentions Blackstock’s four children, including his two youngest, River, 11 and Remington, 9, whom he shares with Clarkson. It also lists various survivors, and says he was “surrounded by his family” at his home when he died while under hospice care.
But the obituary doesn’t mention Clarkson, his wife of seven years, and it doesn’t mention whether she was among the family who spent time with him before he died. Page Six reported that Clarkson took time away from her eponymous talk show “to be there for Blackstock as his health declined,” despite their contentious split. Her priority was reportedly focused on helping their two children prepare for his loss.