While the past year has been difficult for most of us in many ways, pop star / sometime The Voice coach / talk show host Kelly Clarkson has also been dealing with a rather contentious divorce on top of everything else. But, Clarkson does love to talk, so she's been pretty transparent on The Kelly Clarkson Show, especially, about how the breakup is affecting her and how she's been dealing with it. Now, Clarkson has opened up about what co-parenting with her soon-to-be ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, has been like.
Kelly Clarkson's fans were stunned last June when the singer filed for a divorce from Brandon Blackstock after almost seven years of marriage, and cited "irreconcilable differences." The couple have two very young children, River Rose (6) and Remington Alexander (4), and while Blackstock also has two older kids from his first marriage, they each now have to co-parent the younger children. When talking about the issue of co-parenting on The Kelly Clarkson Show with Khloé Kardashian recently, the host spoke about her own journey to work with Blackstock to care for their kids, telling everyone:
You speak about co-parenting, and I'm doing that right now too. It's tough. ... I know with me and Brandon, it's just a difficult thing because we're in different places, and it's like, we both agree on the main things, but it's a hard thing when you're not together all the time, for me personally.
As we all know, breakups can already be quite hard on people, but such difficulties usually intensify when kids are involved. And, while co-parenting would be a situation which would require some juggling just from one parent moving away from the family's home, as Kelly Clarkson told her viewers, things are even more difficult for her and Brandon Blackstock. The couple and their kids had spent much of their time in quarantine at the family's ranch in Montana, but by the time divorce proceedings were set in motion, Clarkson had returned to Los Angeles for her show, with Blackstock staying at the ranch.
Luckily, Kelly Clarkson said that she and Blackstock agree on the major aspects of what needs to be done in order to raise their children, so that, ostensibly, there don't have to be arguments (or even conversations) over everything regarding their care. But, there is likely still a lot of coordinating to do with regards to other parts of their upbringing, which is where the trouble probably comes in with regards to their distance.
Clarkson was recently granted a bit of an upper hand in that regard, though. In late November, she was given primary custody of River Rose and Remington Alexander, after Blackstock had requested joint custody. This ruling means that the children reside with Clarkson most of the time, with them heading to Montana to see their father for the third weekend of each month. He also has the kids for the first and fifth weekends every month, but is required to head to Los Angeles for those long visits.
During the interview, Kelly Clarkson agreed with Khloé Kardashian's assessment that the best way to make co-parenting work was to communicate and make sure that each parent has the best interest of the kids at heart. Here's hoping that Clarkson and Blackstock can continue to do that, whatever potential clashes might come in their own relationship as time goes on.
You can watch The Kelly Clarkson Show weekdays on NBC, so be sure to check local times, but for more to watch in the coming weeks, check out our guide to winter / spring 2021 premieres.
