Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani are not only a power couple in Hollywood but in country music. They make for an unlikely match–Shelton is a country singer from the Midwest while Stefani is pop royalty from California who got her career start as frontwoman of the rock band No Doubt before shedding the punk look to become a glitzy pop star with hits like “Hollaback Girl” and “Cool.” After meeting through The Voice, it was clear they were destined for a lasting bond held together by music.
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How did they meet?
Stefani and Shelton met in the summer of 2015 when they were filming season nine of The Voice. Shelton had been a coach since the show started in 2011 and Stefani was a first-time coach. Their meeting was divine timing, as both were going through very-public divorces: Stefani from singer-songwriter and Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, and Shelton from fellow country superstar Miranda Lambert. What started as a friendship leaning on each other for support through their respective divorces turned into a deep romance.
“I thought it was going to be another one of those things-are-going-to-be-OK talks. She didn’t tell me much, because we didn’t know each other at the time, but she said, ‘I’m going through something very similar to what you’re going through. I understand. And I hate it,'” Shelton told Billboard about one day on set when Stefani asked to talk to him in private.
“That’s kind of how our friendship and bond started, that day. It went from that to checking in on each other once a week through email—‘This shit happened to me, what happened to you?’—to maybe three times a week, then every day, to ‘Hey, here’s my phone number if you ever want to text.’ Next thing I know, I wake up and she’s all I care about, and I’m wondering if she feels the same about me,” he continued.
Their relationship was confirmed in November 2015 just before the CMA Awards in Nashville. They made their red carpet debut as a couple months later in February 2016 at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party.
[RELATED: Watch: Gwen Stefani’s Son Performs at Blake Shelton’s Oklahoma Bar]
What songs have they written or performed together?
Shelton and Stefani’s bond is also cemented through the power of music. The two have written several collaborations together, with Stefani heading into new terrain in country music. Their first duet was “Go Ahead and Break My Heart” which they co-wrote in 2015 not long after they started dating. “She wrote a verse that was brutally honest and didn’t really go with my verse,” Shelton explained to Billboard. “I was writing about her, and she made it about us. I was so taken aback by it. F–, she’s awesome.” It was released as a promotional single off Shelton’s 2016 album If I’m Honest.
This marked the start of their songwriting partnership. A year later, they co-wrote another duet, “You Make it Feel Like Christmas,” with Justin Tranter and busbee as the title track for Stefani’s 2017 holiday album. It reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. The two found magic again with “Nobody but You” in January 2020. Co-writer Shane McAnally had pitched it to Stefani, who then shared it with Shelton, who became an instant fan. They turned it into a duet that topped the Billboard Country Airplay chart, marking Stefani’s first No. 1 song in country music and Shelton’s 27th, making him the third artist with the most No. 1s on the chart.
The couple found themselves at the top of the chart again months later when they dropped their fourth duet, “Happy Anywhere,” in July 2020 which also hit No. 1 on the Country Airplay chart.
Where are they now?
The couple got engaged in October 2020 and wed on their property in Shelton’s native Oklahoma over the Fourth of July weekend in 2021. Shelton proposed to Stefani in front of her three sons, as well as other family members, in the chapel on their property where the wedding ceremony took place. “You think you know what love is, and for me, I didn’t until she came into my life,” Shelton said in a 2020 interview with Gayle King. “I feel like I’m the one that’s getting it all by getting Blake,” Stefani added.
Shelton left The Voice in 2023 after 23 seasons. Stefani has been a rotating coach and has returned for season 24 that’s currently airing on NBC.
Photo Credit: Chris Hollo/Courtesy of Grand Ole Opry
