Gwen Stefani recalls nearly dumping Blake Shelton early in their relationship: 'I had enough problems'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Although Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton—who got married in 2021—are now inseparable, the 'Hollaback Girl' singer recently revealed that she was about to become just another girl for the 'Ol' Red' crooner.
In a recent People interview, Stefani disclosed that she felt compelled to reject their brief affair outright because it came at such a bad moment in her life following her highly publicized divorce from Gavin Rossdale.
Gwen Stefani nearly ended her romance with Blake Shelton
The 48-year-old country superstar and the 55-year-old pop icon first met in 2015 while serving as coaches on 'The Voice'. Both had gone through divorces after splitting from Miranda Lambert and Rossdale, respectively.
Despite her feelings for Shelton, Stefani—who has sons Kingston, 18, Zuma, 16, and Apollo, 10, with her ex-husband—was reluctant to enter another relationship at the time.
"We had just met, and it was chaos. Both of our lives were in complete turmoil, all over the ground. Nothing could save us at that point," Stefani told People on Monday, November 25.
She added, "There was a point where I was like, 'I can't even talk to you. This is insane. I already have enough problems. This is not happening anymore. We're not going to text or nothing.'"
Unfazed Blake Shelton eventually used music to win Gwen Stefani back
That could have been the end of it for a different kind of guy. Blake Shelton, however, refused to accept the "no" and managed to win her back by singing to her.
Stefani explained that songwriting is what kept Shelton going despite her initial reluctance. "I think he really wanted to impress me, because he doesn't really write songs as much as he used to," she said.
"And I love writing songs. That's everything to me. If I want to feel like I have any kind of purpose or any kind of value or anything, it's about writing a song. That's where I get my fulfillment," Stefani added.
She said, "He sent it to me, and it was a half-written song. He was like, 'Help me finish this.' So I wrote him the verse back — the second verse on the song — and it's just over text."
"That was our first song that we ever wrote together. We were never even in the same room, but we were writing a song to each other," the 'Hollaback Girl' hitmaker added.
After that, Shelton started writing the song 'Go Ahead and Break My Heart', which he and Stefani released as a country duet in 2016.
Stefani also saw Shelton as an answer to her prayer, not just a songwriting collaborator. "Something that I wanted since I was a little girl is to be married and have this love that I saw my parents have and have babies," she said.
She added, "That dream was completely ruined. It was crushed, and I had to figure out how I was going to move forward and make a new dream and God putting Blake in my life was just that miracle."
The couple tied the knot in 2021 and they are now life partners besides being duet partners. The two have also collaborated on several other songs over the last nine years, such as 'Purple Irises', which can be found on Stefani's most recent album, 'Bouquet'.
"We come from such different worlds. Our musical tastes are different, yet we do come together in this one place: We both love ’70s soft rock and yacht rock," she said.
She added that when they got together, "We would always play this game, and we would put on a song and say, ‘Do you know this one?’ And it would always be these ’70s songs."
Their mutual passion for yacht rock ultimately served as the basis for 'Purple Irises,' a love ballad about Shelton that evolved into a duet and influenced Bouquet's overall direction.
