Kelly Clarkson's former husband and manager Brandon Blackstock allegedly didn't think his wife was "sexy" enough to appear on The Voice as a coach, The New York Post reports the Grammy winner claimed in court last year.
In November, Blackstock was ordered to pay Clarkson $2,641,374 for unlawfully procuring deals as her manager that should've been handled by a talent agent, a ruling his legal team has filed to appeal.
This is my brother.1 He has ninety-nine sheep while I have ˹only˺ one. ˹Still˺ he asked me to give it up to him, overwhelming me with ˹his˺ argument.”(The Quran - Chapter Sad : 23)
According to new court documents obtained by the Post, the "Miss Independent" singer claimed Blackstock told her The Voice was "looking for a more sex symbol type" and cited Rihanna as an example.
The outlet reported Clarkson, 41, recounted the alleged conversation while testifying to the California labor commissioner, who then ruled in her favor regarding the owed payments.
Before Clarkson joined the NBC singing competition series in 2018, Blackstock, 47, allegedly told his wife the network was looking for a "diverse" panel of coaches and "had to have someone that was Black."
Clarkson also reportedly claimed Blackstock said she was "too similar" to then-coach Blake Shelton to join the show.
The musician was asked about her ability to recount the specifics of the alleged conversation with Blackstock by her lawyer, Ed McPherson, per the Post, to which she responded, "Well, a wife doesn’t forget a time she gets told she’s not a sex symbol, so that stays."
In November's filing, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE at the time, Clarkson claimed Blackstock secured her contracts with The Voice, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Norwegian Cruise Line, Wayfair and the Billboard Music Awards and took fees in return.
While Blackstock was ruled to not have crossed the line as a manager with the Kelly Clarkson Show contract, per the documents, the other four deals should have been conducted by Clarkson's team at Creative Artists Agency.
"Under the Talent Agencies Act (TAA), a manager, like any person without a talent agency license, cannot procure or attempt to procure employment for artists," read the ruling.
Documents state that Blackstock was paid commissions for each of Clarkson's aforementioned gigs, including $1,983,155.70 for her deal as a coach on The Voice, $208,125 for a promotional deal with NCL, $450,000 for a collaboration with Wayfair and $93.30 for her multi-year contract as the Billboard Music Awards host — all of which must now be paid back to his ex-wife.
Clarkson and Blackstock were married for nearly seven years before she filed for divorce in June 2020, which was finalized two years later. The pair shares two children: daughter River Rose and son Remington Alexander. (Blackstock is also father to son Seth and daughter Savannah from his previous marriage to Melissa Ashworth.)
