Kelly Clarkson has seemingly gotten ex-husband Brandon Blackstock a present for Christmas:
Some major shade.
In promotion of her album “When Christmas Comes Around… Again” on Wednesday, the first-ever American Idol winner posted an “official album visualizer” via YouTube.
This video featured four stockings hanging over a fireplace.
Two of the stockings depict the names of the artist and Blackstock’s kids — daughter River, 10, and son Remington, 8 — while another read, “Mom.”
So far, so good and normal, right?
The fourth, as you can see below, is printed with the word “Nope.”
Not very subtle, is it?
For those in need of a refresher, Clarkson and Blackstock were married for seven years before parting ways in 2020.
When their divorce was finalized in 2022, the singer was granted primary custody of their two children.
Things got pretty ugly at various points, though, because Blackstock also served as his then-wife’s manager under his dad Narvel Blackstock’s company, Starstruck Management Group.
Shortly after the talk show host filed for divorce, Starstruck sued Clarkson for alleged unpaid commissions and an apparent breach of her agreement.
The singer countersued, eventually winning a $2.6 million legal ruling against her ex in 2023 after a California labor commissioner ruled that he had overstepped his managerial role when securing four of her business deals.
In short, according to Clarkson, her former husband stole from her.
Earlier this year, Clarkson filed a new case… accusing Blackstock and his father’s firm of violating state labor rules. In May, the exes quietly settled this lawsuit.
Clarkson has gone after Blackstock in similarly passive aggressive ways before.
During a performance on her self-titled talk show in March 2023, for example, Clarkson altered the lyrics of Gayle’s “ABCDEFU” to seemingly reference Brandon and his dad.
“Forget you and your dad and the fact that you got half / And my broken heart, turn that shit into art,” she sang.
Relatedly, Clarkson has not dated publicly since splitting from the talent manager … and her children like it that way, she said previously.
“They constantly bring it up: ‘Please, we don’t want you to be with anybody else,’” Clarkson told KSOT 103.5 listeners in November. “They’re young, so it’s hard to picture their mom with someone else other than their dad.”