The oldest daughter of Kelly Clarkson’s late ex-husband Brandon Black stock is breaking her silence after her father’s tragic death earlier this month, Daily Mail reports.
Kelly Clarkson’s late ex-husband Brandon Black daughter Savannah Blackstock, 23, shared an emotional tribute to her father — who died on August 7 at 48 after a battle with melanoma — on Instagram on Tuesday.
Savannah, whom Blackstock shared with his ex-wife ex-wife Melissa Ashworth, had previously revealed just weeks before her father’s death that she was pregnant with her second child.
Savannah shared her post on the same day that it was revealed that Clarkson was returning to tape her singing competition series The Voice.
‘My daddy never fell short of making my dreams come true,’ Savannah opened her post.
‘No matter how high or how far, he made a way. Not only did he make my dreams come true, he chased them with me. Worldwide he was there, my biggest cheerleader. He is my best friend, my voice of reason, and my favorite phone call every day.’
She continued, noting that her father ‘gifted me a new avenue of our relationship,’ which was ‘centered in Jesus.
‘He always loved the Lord, but 6 months ago he sought the Lord,’ Savannah continued. ‘He was hungry for the word and we did it together.
‘He’s gifted me more than I could’ve asked for and deserved throughout my life, but 12 days ago he blessed me [with] the most valuable gift I could’ve asked for. The gift of knowing where he is today, in Heaven with our Savior,’ she wrote.
‘I lost a piece of my heart and my favorite Cowboy, but Heaven gained an angel,’ Savannah concluded. ‘I’m so thankful for the time I did have and I can’t wait for eternity. I love you daddy and I will miss you indefinitely. Enjoy your ranch up there, God designed it with your heart’s desires in mind.’
Among her Instagram photos was a sweet image of Savannah in her white wedding dress as Blackstock accompanied her in a black tuxedo and matching Stetson.
Another picture showed her late father beaming next to her and her three-year-old son Lake.
Blackstock held the little boy, who wore a cute denim jacket, in subsequent photo in which he also had a young cow tied on a leash out on a prairie.
Savannah, who works as a realtor in Florida, was decked out in an equestrian helmet in one photo showing her atop a horse while her father stood next to her.
She concluded her post with an extended family photo. She held little lake while standing between Blackstock and her husband, Quentin Lee.
Blackstock was also joined by his 11-year-old daughter River and nine-year-old son Remington, both of whom he shares with Clarkson.
Missing from the photo was Blackstock’s 18-year-old son Seth, from his marriage to Melissa Ashworth.
Ashworth shared her own tribute to her ex-husband on Instagram last week
In July, Savannah revealed that she and her husband Quentin were expecting their second child together.
She admitted the couple had been ‘keeping a couple sweet surprises,’ before revealing her upcoming child’s sex and planned name.
‘One little girl will be making her arrival at the beginning of January and another beautiful girl named Julianna who has already been one of the greatest blessings to our family,’ she continued.
The aftermath of Blackstock’s death took a shocking turn last week, when it was revealed in his obituary that his partner at the time of his death was his ex-wife’s former assistant, Brittney Marie Jones.
On Friday, Page Six reported that Jones and Blackstock had allegedly carried on an affair while she was married, though her then-husband eventually discovered their relationship.
The obituary, which was published on Tuesday, revealed that Blackstock and Jones had been in a relationship and were starting a new life for themselves in Montana, which had not been previously reported.
‘After more than 20 years in the music business, Brandon found his way back to the mountains and the cowboy way of life he always wanted to live,’ his obituary read. ‘He found a homestead and a love in Butte, Montana.
‘Brandon, along with his beautiful and loving partner in life and business, Brittney Marie Jones, started building a life, building companies, and working tirelessly to create Headwaters Livestock Auction and what will live on as his legacy, The Valley View Rodeo in Bozeman, Montana,’ it continued
A December 2024 report from The US Sun reported that Blackstock and Jones were running a rodeo business in Montana together, and noted that she was his ex-wife’s assistant, but their romantic relationship wasn’t reported until after Blackstock’s death.
Clarkson, who married Blackstock in 2013, filed for divorce in June 2020 on grounds of irreconcilable differences, and the two were subsequently engaged in years of legal wrangling related to their finances.
Their messy divorce was reported to have been finalized in March of 2022, but it wasn’t until a year later that Clarkson won a $2.6 million judgment against her husband.
Clarkson had claimed Blackstock — who served as her manager during their marriage — owed her millions in commissions that he should not have been able to collect for deals that he set up that should have been handled by a talent agent, rather than her manager, and the California Labor Commissioner ultimately agreed.
It ruled that Blackstock had overstepped by working around Clarkson’s agents at Creative Artists Agency.
In May 2024, the warring exes finally reached a settlement in Clarkson’s lawsuit over the commission fees.
The hitmaker had previously won the $2.6 million judgement for deals Blackstock had secured for her going back to 2017, but she had claimed he had been taking the place of her talent agents while serving as her manager going back as far as 2007, so she had requested a more thorough accounting of commissions paid to her ex-husband.
Clarkson and Blackstock both requested that her lawsuit be dismissed after the settlement was reached, and the details of the agreement were not publicly disclosed.
In 2022, the Moment Like This singer had agreed to pay her ex-husband a $1.3 million lump sum as part of their divorce settlement.
They also agreed that Clarkson would pay Blackstock $45,601 per month in child support payments.
On top of that, she had to pay Blackstock $115,000 per month for spousal support, though those payments were set to end in January of last year.
The exes agreed to share joint custody of River and Remington, but the children would primarily live in Los Angeles with their mother and would visit Blackstock at his home in Montana for one weekend per month.
At the time, he was paying Clarkson rent on the ranch that they had shared in Montana before he was scheduled to move out in June 2022.
Eric André Will Be Able To Sue Over ‘Dehumanizing’ Search By Cops At Airport
Happy Gilmore 2 actor Eric André has received good news in a lawsuit he’s involved in against Clayton County, Georgia over a 2021 incident at an Atlanta airport.
The American actor-comedian, Eric André 42, and fellow entertainer Clayton English, 43, said in a legal complaint officers with the Clayton County Police Department breached their rights in separate incidents – André’s in April 2021 and English’s in October 2020.
Both of the plaintiffs, who are Black, claimed in their complaint that race factored into why they were illegally stopped at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, according to legal docs reviewed by the Daily Mail.
In each instance, Eric André and English told the court that they were making their way through jet bridges connecting them to Los Angeles-bound Delta planes when police stopped them.
The case was thrown out of court nearly two years ago in Atlanta, but on Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th circuit revived it.
The court ruled on Friday that André and English had their rights violated by the county, in terms of not having to deal with searches and seizures that do not have proper cause behind them.
The appeals court threw out the racial discrimination claim filed by English and André, who formerly dated Blurred Lines beauty Emily Ratajkowski.
An attorney for the entertainers, Barry Friedman, spoke about the latest development with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Tuesday.
Friedman said that he looks forward ‘to returning to the trial court to learn even more about the Clayton County Police Department’s unconstitutional jet bridge stop program.’
At the time of the incident, André said he was in line for his flight when the officers asked for his consent to search his person, which he declined.
This past March, Clayton County attorneys said that both André and English had consented to voluntary searches. The lawyers noted that neither man was detained, as they both were able to board their flights to California with their identification cards and airline boarding passes.
The appeals court ruled that ‘common sense and the Supreme Court both refute this theory,’ as the ‘plaintiffs’ paths were blocked by officers, the officers held onto plaintiffs’ IDs and boarding passes during questioning.
The court noted that ‘the officers did not inform plaintiffs of the voluntary nature of the questioning or that plaintiffs were free to leave until after officers finished their questioning.’
André took to Twitter to detail the harrowing experience, eventually alerting then-Vice President Kamala Harris and then-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to what had happened to him.
‘I was just racially profiled by two plain clothes Atlanta PD police in @Delta terminal T3 at the Atlanta airport,’ he wrote, tagging Atlanta Police.
André continued: ‘They stopped me on the way down the bridge to the plane for a ‘random’ search and asked they could search me for drugs. I told them no. Be careful.’
Andre said that he was the only ‘person of color’ who had been in the airport line when he was confronted.
The Bad Trip actor wrote: ‘They let me go. I’m on the plane in the air. I’m fine now but I want this reported. Please any Atlanta lawyer reach out to me. @KeishaBottoms #racialprofiling #jimcrowgeorgia terminal T3 Atlanta airport.’
Bottoms replied to Andre’s tweet, informing him that the incident had not taken place in the purview of the Atlanta police.
‘Sorry to hear about your experience,’ Bottoms said. ‘It’s my understanding that this was not APD, but another one of the many agencies working in the airport. We are working to confirm.’
The Atlanta Police Department said on social media that it was not the agency that was involved in the incident with the actor-comic.
‘The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is somewhat unique in that multiple law enforcement agencies operate there,’ the department said. ‘It appears this incident involved members of another agency.
‘Additionally, members of APD’s Airport Drug Interdiction Unit do not randomly approach travelers and ask to search them. Searches are conducted based on some type of evidence or indication of criminal activity.’
The Clayton County Police Department at the time issued a statement acknowledging it was their agency that had stopped Andre, claiming he had consented to speak with the officers and let them search his belongings.
‘On April 21, 2021, the Clayton County Police Department made a consensual encounter with a male traveler, later identified as Eric Andre, as he was preparing to fly to California from the Atlanta Airport,’ the statement read. ‘Mr. Andre chose to speak with investigators during the initial encounter.
‘During the encounter, Mr. Andre voluntarily provided the investigators information as to his travel plans.
Clayton County officials continued, ‘Mr. Andre also voluntarily consented to a search of his luggage but the investigators chose not to do so. Investigators identified that there was no reason to continue a conversation and therefore terminated the encounter.
‘Mr. Andre boarded the plane without being detained and continued on his travels. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Atlanta Police Department did not assist in this consensual encounter.’
Andre called the statement ‘sad and full of misinformation’ and denied that he gave officers consent to search him and said he was ‘detained … with no probable cause except for racism.’
‘I did NOT volunteer to a search and I did not volunteer to talk,’ Andre said on Twitter. ‘You guys flashed your badge and detained me with no probable cause except for racism.
‘This is JIM CROW RACISM @ClaytonCountyPD I DID NOT VOLUNTEER TO A SEARCH. YOU ARE HARASSING ME. THIS IS RACISM! @KeishaBottoms.’