Kelly Clarkson is hitting pause on her Studio Sessions residency in Las Vegas, postponing the remaining four shows scheduled for August to attend to her family’s needs.
“While I normally keep my personal life private, this past year, my children’s father has been ill and at this moment, I need to be fully present for them,” Clarkson wrote Wednesday on Instagram, referring to ex-husband Brandon Blackstock, whom she split from in 2020 after seven years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized in 2022.
“I am sincerely sorry to everyone who bought tickets to the shows and I so appreciate your grace, kindness and understanding,” the “Since U Been Gone” singer continued.
The cancellation came about 48 hours before she was to take the stage. Clarkson had planned to perform Friday and Saturday and again on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16, so the response wasn’t all grace and kindness. Some fans complained in comments and elsewhere online about nonrefundable travel expenses they had incurred. Others, however, praised the singer for having her priorities in order.
The residency is scheduled to pick up again in September when the “American Idol” alumna has four shows on the calendar.
It’s unclear when Clarkson will make up the four shows, which she said were being postponed, not canceled. The 18-show residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace was announced in February and kicked off on the Fourth of July.
Clarkson, who shares a boy and a girl with Blackstock, was absent from her talk show without explanation in early March, when guest Simu Liu suddenly found himself in charge of asking the questions instead of answering them.
“Kelly isn’t able to make it today. We’re sending her our very best,” Liu told the audience March 3 after the host abruptly left “The Kelly Clarkson Show” a few minutes before cameras started rolling. “I did not know that I was doing this until about five minutes ago when I arrived to promote my new movie ‘Last Breath.’”
A source told TMZ at the time that Clarkson was handling “a personal matter that does not directly involve her.”
She returned to the show a little more than two weeks later, on March 20, when she marked the series’ 1,000th episode. She did not say where she had been or why.
“For 1,000 episodes, we have laughed together, we have cried together, sang together, danced together, celebrated and competed together,” she told that audience. “I’ve lost alone a lot.” After adding, “It’s OK,” she went on to thank and congratulate her crew.
Clarkson reportedly agreed to pay $45,000 a month in child support to Blackstock as well as a $1.3-million lump sum to settle their divorce in 2022. The two would go on to settle dueling lawsuits in 2024 after a California labor official determined in 2023 that Blackstock had not legally earned more than $2.6 million in commissions from the singer when they were married and he was acting as her manager but not her agent.
In a 2023 interview with Zane Lowe, Clarkson got “brutally honest” about her breakup, saying she “did not handle it well.”
Therapy was helpful during the divorce and she found comfort in crying sessions with friends, she said. In processing her separation from Blackstock, she said, she learned to be more outspoken and selective about the people with whom she chooses to share her life.
“Not everyone,” she said, “is deserving of your story or worth it or worth your time.”
Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.
