Kelly Clarkson has filed a petition with the Los Angeles Superior Court to legally change her name.
The 39-year-old singer and talk show host filed the paperwork with the court on Feb. 16 to change her last name from Clarkson to Brianne, which is her middle name. According to a copy of the legal documents obtained by US Weekly, Clarkson told the court she believed change is necessary at this point in her life.
“My new name more fully reflects who I am,” Clarkson wrote in the documents.
The court set a hearing for the petition on March 28.
Clarkson first made a name for herself when she won the first season of “American Idol.” Since then, the singer has gone on to win three Grammy Awards for her music, sell millions of albums and appear on TV shows, including in her recurring role as a coach on “The Voice,” and she even now has her own Emmy award-winning talk show.
Name recognition is everything in the entertainment industry, but Clarkson’s choice to change her name to Kelly Brianne comes a couple of years into her divorce proceedings.
After seven years of marriage to Brandon Blackstock, Clarkson filed for divorce in June 2020. More than a year into filing, according to Vanity Fair, she petitioned the court for a separate trial so a judge could legally declare her single following months of “good-faith efforts to settle” differences between the pair, even as they continued to hammer out the final details of the divorce. A judge granted that request in September 2021.
They have two children together: daughter River, age 7, and son, Remington, 5. Clarkson won primary physical custody of the kids in November 2020, according to court documents obtained by USA Today.
It seems the name change is the next step for this talented woman to continue rebuilding a happy life for herself and her children. We wish her all the best!
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