Inside Brandon Blackstock’s Life in Montana and His Final Days

Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband, Brandon Blackstock, lived out his final months in peace in Montana where he felt most “at home.”

Blackstock, who was the singer’s one-time manager, purchased a $1.8 million home in Butte, Montana, just over one month after their 2022 divorce was finalized. The pair first started dating in 2012, going on to marry just over a year later in October 2013.

“Brandon lived a pretty quiet life in Montana. That was how he liked it,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly on Friday, August 8. “Even though he worked in entertainment in the past, that was not his personality. He was at home in Montana.”

Blackstock’s previous career as a talent manager started with Starstruck Entertainment owned by his father Narvel Blackstock, who continues to run the company, working with Blake Shelton and other artists. Blackstock later founded Valley View Rodeo in Montana.

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“He had his ranch and rodeo, but he preferred to go under the radar,” added the source.“Some of the people who worked with him at Starstruck [Entertainment] ended up moving to Montana to work on the rodeo with him.”

Blackstock was living at his ranch when his health “took a very bad turn” within the last year, said the source.

While he “was focusing on his treatment,” he also “spent a ton of time with his family in the last six months, more than ever before,” the insider added.

Although Clarkson “was not caring for Brandon,” according to the source, the talk show host made their children’s time with their father her priority.

“She did spend a lot of time traveling with her kids to be with him,” the source continued of the former couple’s relationship, leading up to Blackstock’s death on Thursday, August 7, after a private three-year battle against cancer. He was 48.

Clarkson, 43, and Blackstock shared daughter River Rose and son Remington James. Blackstock is also survived by his two children, daughter Savannah and son Seth, from his first marriage to Melissa Ashworth.

Savannah, who welcomed her own son Lake in 2022, was “with him almost all the time,” the insider continued. “She has been having an incredibly difficult time. They were very close. Everyone is in shock.”

The source added, “Brandon was traveling and doing things. Even a few months back he looked okay. He looked thin but he looked like himself. No one can believe it.”

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Being a father, grandfather and family man were most important to him.

“He loved having his family with him and loved when the kids would visit,” said the source. “He loved his animals and that was a passion he shared with his daughter Savannah.”