Kelly Clarkson is opening up about her name change.
Amid the singer’s divorce from Brandon Blackstock, she requested that her legal name, Kelly Clarkson, be restored having used Kelly Blackstock during their marriage. Then, last month, she petitioned the court to change her legal last name to just her first and middle names: Kelly Brianne. However, she isn’t expecting 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 will just be “for my personal life,” she noted, and not a new stage or professional name.
“I’m still Kelly Clarkson,” she clarified.
Besides, getting everyone to call her something else after all these years in the limelight would be tricky.
“I don’t think I can change Clarkson [professionally] at this point. I’m 20 years in!” said The Kelly Clarkson Show host, who never went by Kelly Blackstock professionally either.
In her February petition to change her name to Kelly Brianne, Clarkson said she has the “desire” to change her name for personal reasons. She did share: “My new name more fully reflects who I am.”
Dropping “Clarkson” shouldn’t be that 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’s called her dad “toxic.” She said she would reach out to him but he wouldn’t reciprocate, which was humiliating. She always wondered even he was “even capable” of 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’s been contentious, but the pair reached a settlement this month.
Court documents stated 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 Jan. 31, 2024, and $45,601 monthly in child support for kids, River Rose, 7, and Remington Alexander, 5.
Clarkson and Blackstock will share joint legal custody of their kids. 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 air travel.
The exes also divided properties and assets. Clarkson gets two Montana properties and one in California. Blackstock, who has been residing in one of their Montana homes, will pay $2,000 a month in rent for one property and $12,500 per month for the second until he vacates on or before June 1, 2022.
