Last year, Kelly Clarkson split from her husband of 7 years, Brandon Blackstock. As it often is, divorce is messy and painful, not only for the heart but also for the wallet.

A year later, TMZ learned that Clarkson has been paying Blackstock almost $200,000 every month since she filed for divorce in June 2020. Although this sounds like a lot of money, it’s less than Blackstock requested. In April of 2021, a judge made the payments official, ignoring Blackstock’s request to be paid more than double. He wanted, $436,000 every month with a breakdown of $301,000 is spousal support and $135,000 in child support every month.

The arrangement states the Clarkson is to pay Blackstock $150,000 every month in spousal support and an additional $45,601 each month in child support. The couple has two children, 7-year-old River and 5-year-old Remy. Especially considering Clarkson has primary custody of both children, that’s quite a lot to pay her ex-husband for only occasionally watching the kids at his home in Montana.

In addition to the child support and spousal support payments, Clarkson is required to pay Blackstock a one-time fee of $1.25 million towards his attorney and legal fees. Once again, this is less than Blackstock requested. He wanted $2 million.

The payments will not be indefinite. Once the divorce is finalized, Clarkson will only have to pay Blackstock spousal support for 2 years. Yet, it’s possible that she may not have to pay that. It all depends on what is in the couple’s prenuptial agreement.

Watch the video below for more details about what Clarkson owes Blackstock and why.

Clarkson opened up to ET back in February about her divorce. She has been using music and song-writing as an outlet to deal with the pain and stress. She explained, “Like, I don’t know how anybody, I’ll just be real with you, goes through grief like divorce, any kind of grief, any kind of loss, without having an outlet like this.” 

As of February, Clarkson had already written 60 songs since filing for divorce. The majority of them may never become public. They were just her way of dealing with grief.

On her talk show, Clarkson also talked about how sharing custody of the children is going. She explained, “It’s just a difficult thing because we’re in different places, and it’s like, we both agree on the main things, but it’s a hard thing when you’re not together all the time.” She added, “As long as you make sure it’s about the children and their best interests, then we’re both on board.”