Kelly Clarkson’s Half-Brother Says She Needs ‘All the Support She Can Get’ Amid Brandon Divorce

She may be “Miss Independent,” but Kelly Clarkson could use a helping hand. Half-brother Erik Clarkson exclusively tells In Touch his sister is “gonna need all the support she can get right now” amid her divorce from her husband, Brandon Blackstock. The American Idol alum filed the paperwork for her split on June 4, and in an interview that aired on June 10, she revealed she was “so sad” that week.

“I’m so sorry about the news,” Erik says. Although the half-siblings haven’t spoken — Kelly was estranged from their father, Stephen Michael Clarkson, at the time of his death — he’s considering reaching out. “She is still my sister,” he continues. “I wouldn’t mind speaking to her to get our family back together. … I’d love to give her all the support she needs.”

Kelly, who called herself a “hopeless romantic” over the years, cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for her split, according to documents obtained by In Touch. In a 2009 interview with British Cosmopolitan, she opened up about how her own parents separated when she was only 6 years old. Their divorce made her “realize that relationships can be broken and people fall out of love.”

However, when she first met her now-estranged husband, it felt like love at first sight. After he first introduced himself at the ACM Awards in 2006, she was smitten — even though he was married with kids. “We were just in a room together, and then he came up and said he was from the same hometown as me and I was like, Oh, we’re so getting married. I was so that girl,” she said on KISS-FM in 2012. When they ran into each other again half a decade later, he’d been single for a year and they clicked once more.

In 2013, Kelly became a stepmother to his kids, Savannah and Seth. In 2014, the couple welcomed a child of their own, daughter River. Two years later, they had their son, Remington, and the “Since U Been Gone” singer gushed about what an amazing father her husband is. “It’s sexy as hell to see a dad engaged with his kids!” she told In Touch in 2018. “It’s very easy with how busy we are not to be engaged, but we both really challenge each other and make sure each of us is present [for the kids].”

Now that she’s a single mom, we hope Kelly has the support system she needs by her side — both for her kids and for herself.