Kelly Clarkson Is Leaning on Blake Shelton Amid Her Divorce From His Manager

They may be competitors on The Voice, but Blake Shelton has been “supportive” to Kelly Clarkson amid Brandon Blackstock’s divorce. A source told Us Weekly on Wednesday, June 17, that Kelly has found a friend in her fellow The Voice coach amid her separation from—wait for it—his longtime manager.

“Blake has been supportive and the friend she has needed, as always,” the insider said. “Blake and Kelly often joke they are siblings.”

Kelly has also found a support system in another unlikely source: Reba McEntire, who is her ex-husband’s stepmother. “[Kelly] broke the news to Reba,” a second source told Us Weekly. “Reba’s supportive of both Brandon and Kelly’s decision to split. She’s anguished about it, but she’s not one to judge.”

News broke that Kelly and Brandon had split after seven years of marriage on June 11. The couple share two children together: daughter River Rose, 6, and son Remington Alexander, 4. A source previously told Us Weekly that the couple’s relationship turned sour while they were in quarantine, which led the former American Idol winner to file for divorce.

“They clashed on so many levels and being in quarantine together heightened their problems to the point of no return,” the insider said. “So she filed for divorce.”

Source: Instagram

The same reason for their divorce was reported by Entertainment Tonight. A source told the publication at the time of Kelly and Brandon’s split that the couple had been having issues for “several months” before the “Since U Been Gone” singer decided to pull the plug and file for divorce. “Kelly and Brandon had been having problems for several months and were making a conscious effort to work things out,” the source said. They both hoped quarantining away from L.A. in Montana would help them work things out in their marriage, but instead the change in environment was actually detrimental.”

The insider continued, “The constant time together seemed to make an already challenging situation worse,” and Kelly’s career “definitely helped to keep her mind off things, but this recent downtime gave her the time she needed to think about her life and her marriage.”