Top Chef winner's DUI mailbox crash comes just weeks after divorce finalized
Top Chef winner Kelsey Barnard Clark’s DUI arrest on Wednesday comes on the heels of a major personal upheaval. Her divorce from Deavours Woodham Clark was officially finalized just weeks before the crash, per Page Six. According to the outlet, the chef and her now-ex ended their decade-long marriage on December 29, 2025, following a filing by Kelsey in May.The pair have agreed to joint custody of their two children, Monroe, eight, and June, five, after Deavours moved out of their family home earlier this year, the news source added.Clark, 36, was taken into custody Wednesday in Dothan, Alabama, after crashing her car into a mailbox and struggling to complete field sobriety tests, including walking in a straight line and standing on one foot. The 2019 Top Chef Season 16 winner, who also judges Netflix’s Next Gen Chef, was booked on suspicion of DUI. Top Chef winner Kelsey Barnard Clark’s DUI arreston Wednesday comes on the heels of a major personal upheaval Her divorce from Deavours Woodham Clark was officially finalized just weeks before the crashClark owns downtown Dothan restaurant KBC and has authored three cookbooks: Southern Grit, Southern Get-Togethers, and The Flavor of Fire.Daily Mail has not received a response to its request for comment from reps for Clark.Clark may be eligible for a pretrial program that could prevent the DUI charge from appearing on her record. It’s not yet clear whether she has retained legal representation to comment on her behalf.On the trailer for Top Chef Season 16, Clark looked directly at the camera and said, ‘I seem like a Southern belle, but you certainly don’t know the other side of me.’Six months after her win, she told Alabama Life and Culture in 2019 that first impressions can be misleading. ‘I’m a kind, giving, good person, but if you knew me more than 30 minutes you wouldn’t describe me as “sweet,”’ she said. ‘People assume I’m docile, but I’m like, yeah, no.’Winning Season 16 made her the fourth female champion in the show’s history, but the path to victory came with significant personal sacrifice. As a first-time mother, Clark left her infant son in her husband’s care for the nine weeks she spent filming, making only three calls home during that time. The chef and her now-ex ended their decade-long marriage on December 29, 2025, following a filing by Kelsey in May The pair have agreed to joint custody of their two children, Monroe, eight, and June, five, after Deavours moved out of their family home earlier this yearShe was forced to stop breastfeeding and missed many of her son’s early milestones.‘He was walking and he was not walking when I left. And I absolutely, honest to god, lost my s*** on the phone,’ she told People magazine. ‘I was just like, “I want to leave. This is horrible. What have I done? My child’s walking!” It put me into a spiral for days.’To cope, Clark focused on the reason she was competing: to provide a better future for her son. ‘The only way I could get through it would be to block out everything.’ Monroe was just five months old when she was asked to take part, and while her family encouraged her, she still struggled with guilt.‘It was pretty brutal... my mind was wack. I would wake up when I would normally wake up to feed. I would wake up three times a night like clockwork. It was extremely weird.’ Even with the support of the Top Chef crew, Clark found the separation difficult. ‘I would wake up almost in a panic, like, “Where’s my baby? I don’t know what’s going on. Is he okay?” It’s almost like a lost arm. That’s how it would feel every night. Lack of sleep is not good for a body, especially in competition. I had a really hard time.’
