A week after Brandon Blackstock’s death at age 48, a surprising fact about the talent manager’s private life has come to light.
An online obituary for Blackstock makes no mention of singer Kelly Clarkson, with whom he shared a 11-year-old daughter, River Rose, and a 9-year-old son, Remington Alexander. However, it lists Brittney Marie Jones as his “beautiful and loving partner in life and business.”
According to LinkedIn, Jones worked as Clarkson’s production assistant from 2016 to 2018. In late 2018, she began working in an executive management assistant role under Blackstock, where her duties included managing a “day to day artist schedule” for Clarkson.
Since 2020, Jones has served as an executive assistant for V Bar V Cattle Co., a Montana ranch owned by Blackstock. Her professional transition notably overlaps with Clarkson’s filing for divorce from Blackstock in June of that year, after about seven years of marriage.
Among those to mourn Blackstock’s passing was Jones’ father, Larry Jones, who said he “considered him my son” in a social media post, according to People.
Elsewhere in the post, he described Blackstock as “my daughter’s soulmate.”
A representative for Clarkson did not immediately reply to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Prior to his relationship with Clarkson, Blackstock was married to Melissa Ashworth from 1999 to 2012. The former couple shared daughter Savannah Blackstock, 23, and son Seth Blackstock, 18.
Blackstock became a grandfather in January 2022 when Savannah Blackstock welcomed the first of her two children, with a third currently on the way.
The former stepson of country legend Reba McEntire, Blackstock died Aug. 7 of skin cancer. He was first diagnosed with melanoma three years ago.
20 Years OfFreeJournalism
Your Support Fuels Our Mission
Your Support Fuels Our Mission
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
“While I normally keep my personal life private, this past year, my children’s father has been ill and at this moment, I need to be fully present for them,” the “American Idol” veteran wrote on Instagram.
Clarkson was also notably absent from her daytime talk show for about two weeks in March, but did not publicly offer a reason. It’s now believed her absence was due to Blackstock’s illness.
