Kelly Clarkson opens up about her name change.
In the midst of the singer’s divorce from Brandon Blackstock, she requested that her legal name, Kelly Clarkson, be restored after using Kelly Blackstock during their marriage. So, last month, she asked the court to change her legal last name to just her first and middle name: Kelly Brianne. However, she does not expect the public to start calling her that.
“I just got divorced so I had to drop my married last name,” Clarkson, 39, explained to People on Monday. Kelly Brianne just wants to be “for my personal life,” she remarked, and not a new stage or professional name.
“I’m still Kelly Clarkson,” she clarified.
Besides, it would be hard to get everyone to call her anything else after all these years in the spotlight.
“I do not think I can change Clarkson [professionally] at this stage. I’m 20 years inside! “Said Kelly Clarkson Show host, who also never went professionally past Kelly Blackstock.
In her petition in February to change her name to Kelly Brianne, Clarkson said she has “wanted” to change her name for personal reasons. She shared: “My new name more fully reflects who I am.”
Dropping “Clarkson” should not be so much of a surprise as she was estranged from her father before his death in 2018. Her parents divorced when she was 6 and she was raised by her mother, who remarried. She has called her father “toxic”. She said she would reach out to him, but he would not reciprocate, which was humiliating. She has always wondered that even he was “self able” to love.
In June 2020, Clarkson filed for divorce from Blackstock, under her married name, after nearly seven years of marriage and two children together. It has been disputed, but the couple reached a settlement this month.
Legal documents stated that Clarkson would pay the talent manager a one-time payment of $ 1,326,161 as well as monthly payments of $ 115,000 in spousal support until January 31, 2024 and $ 45,601 monthly in child support for children, River Rose, 7 and Remington Alexander, 5.
Clarkson and Blackstock will share joint custody of their children. However, she has primary custody of their children in Los Angeles, where she is based. Blackstock has custody the first and fifth weekends of each month – with Clarkson paying a one-time payment of $ 350,000 for their children’s private flights.
The exes also shared property and assets. Clarkson gets two Montana properties and one in California. Blackstock, who has lived in one of their Montana homes, will pay $ 2,000 a month in rent for one property and $ 12,500 a month for the other until he leaves on June 1, 2022 or earlier.