Many throughout the nation were shocked when the news broke that Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, had passed away on August 7. He was just 48 years old and had been battling melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer, for more than three years before his death.
Now Clarkson fans are looking back over the weeks prior to his passing and noticing signs that she had been struggling in silence while grappling with the severity of Blackstock’s condition, something that was kept quiet up until his death.
In a resurfaced viral video taken on July 26, 12 days before Blackstock passed, Clarkson could be seen breaking down in tears multiple times while on stage. She was performing a show at her Las Vegas Studio Session Residency and was visibly fighting to keep her emotions in check.
Clarkson became particularly emotional while introducing her newly reworked hit song “Piece by Piece.” The original version of the song is deeply vulnerable as Clarkson reflects through the lyrics how much better a father Blackstock was in comparison to her own estranged father. The song was released in 2015, two years after she and Blackstock were married. The song sends the message that Blackstock helped repair the emotional damage she sustained from her father.
However, in 2023, after Clarkson and Blackstock had gone through a particularly brutal divorce, she decided it was time to change the lyrics.
“I just walk away, when they ask for money. I take care of me ‘cause I love me. Piece by piece I restored my faith that a heart can still beat even when it breaks,” they read.
Clarkson and Blackstock had two children together, River, 11, and Remington, 9. Blackstock also had two other children from a previous relationship, named Savannah and Seth.