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Gwen Stefani changed after meeting Blake Shelton<\/h4>\n
You don\u2019t have to be a Gwen Stefani or Blake Shelton expert to know they\u2019re two very different people. Stefani was born and raised in California and got her start in punky pop music, while Shelton is a country singing Oklahoman. But Stefani moved her life to the Sooner state to be with her man, even though it wasn\u2019t really her thing. \u201cI am not really a dirt person, a bug person, I don\u2019t like that much humidity. But it\u2019s so beautiful [in Oklahoma], and you kind of feel like you\u2019re going into this vortex,\u201d she told People. The \u201cCool\u201d hitmaker appeared to change in a few ways amid their romance, including developing a passion for country music and releasing a country-inspired album. \u201cI never listened to country music, so while Blake was super successful, I never even knew he existed before I met him,\u201d she told The Guardian.<\/p>\n
But while Stefani evolved, Shelton stayed the same. \u201cHe just really hasn\u2019t changed, you know? Somebody asked me today, \u2018Of all the country artists you know, which one do you think is really a country guy? The most authentic?\u2019 And \u2026 it\u2019s Blake. He lives the life,\u201d Shelton\u2019s pal Trace Adkins told Us Weekly five years into their romance. And while Stefani embraced Oklahoma life, Shelton never warmed to her home state. Shelton told People of being in the south, \u201cWe get away from everything [in L.A.] \u2026 That\u2019s where I feel the most comfortable, happy and safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing wrong with learning from your partner and embracing their passions, but one person shouldn\u2019t feel the need to completely change. If Stefani felt she couldn\u2019t be herself or believes she\u2019s always having to fit with Shelton\u2019s wants, that could be a red flag.<\/p>\n
Both were fresh out of marriages when they started dating<\/h4>\n
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Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton were fresh out of marriages when they first got together in fall 2015. Stefani previously married musician Gavin Rossdale in 2002, with the two announcing their split in August 2015\u00a0(their divorce was finalized in April 2016). Shelton married fellow country star Miranda Lambert in 2011 and later\u00a0confirmed their breakup and divorce in July 2015. The\u00a0following Halloween, Stefani and Shelton went public with their romance.<\/p>\n
Of course, there isn\u2019t a universal timeline for when you should get back into dating after a divorce, but a couple of months isn\u2019t much time to recover from the heartbreak of a broken marriage \u2014 particularly for Stefani, who was married longer and shared three children with her ex. The No Doubt singer got candid about how devastating her split from Rossdale was, telling\u00a0The Guardian,\u00a0\u201cWhen my family fell apart, it was a catastrophe. How do you pick yourself up from that?\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, Stefani and Shelton moved so quickly, the \u201cGod Gave Me You\u201d singer initially considered their romance to be nothing more than a rebound. \u201cIf Gwen and I were being honest right now \u2026 I think in the back of our minds we both kind of thought, \u2018This is a rebound deal,’\u201d he admitted on \u201cToday.\u201d Of course, strong relationships can grow from a fun fling after a breakup, but quickly jumping from one relationship to another without giving yourself time to take stock of what went wrong is rarely a good idea. \u201cIf you\u2019re still in pain, obsessing about your ex, or suffering from emotional whiplash, you\u2019re not ready to date. The best post-breakup dating is done when you\u2019ve accepted the fact that your ex is an ex for good reason,\u201d relationship expert Susan Winter told Business Insider.<\/p>\n
Gwen Stefani tried to break up with Blake Shelton<\/h4>\n
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It\u2019s rarely a green flag in a relationship if one person tries to end it. But that\u2019s exactly what happened in the early days of Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton\u2019s romance. \u201cWe 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,\u201d she told People. \u201cThere was a point where I was like, \u2018I can\u2019t even talk to you. This is insane. I already have enough problems. This is not happening anymore. We\u2019re not going to text or nothing,’\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
If it wasn\u2019t for Shelton, the two may not have had their epic love story. After makeup-free beauty Stefani attempted to cut off contact, he sent her the start of a song he\u2019d been writing and asked her to finish it. \u201cSo I wrote him the verse back \u2014 the second verse on the song \u2014 and it\u2019s just over text,\u201d the \u201cHollaback Girl\u201d hitmaker recalled. That broke the ice again, and they\u2019ve been together ever since. But Stefani being so unsure if she was in a healthy enough place to be with Shelton at the start is certainly eyebrow raising.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve reportedly struggled with long-distance and busy schedules<\/h4>\n
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Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton have reportedly struggled with quality time, as a source told Radar Online in 2022 Stefani encouraged her husband to step back from his coaching role on \u201cThe Voice\u201d to be home more. \u201cGwen wants him to spend more time with her, so they can ensure a happy future together,\u201d they claimed. The country star also told\u00a0People\u00a0that year he wanted a quieter life with Stefani, sharing, \u201cGwen and I have done so much traveling and touring and work the first half of our lives that now we\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m good to put my sweatpants on at 6 p.m. and watch \u2018Ozark\u2019 eight times.\u2019 That\u2019s our life now, and we love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The awkward thing here? Stefani returned to \u201cThe Voice\u201d after he left. \u201cEverybody wants to know, like, \u2018Why are you quitting?\u2019 \u2026 And it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, for the family, you know, for more family time.\u2019 And then the very next announcement was Gwen\u2019s coming back,\u201d Shelton shared on \u201cJimmy Kimmel Live!\u201d \u201cSo maybe she doesn\u2019t want too much family time,\u201d he added. Though Shelton was joking, it could genuinely cause problems if their work life balance is off, as the person cutting back on career commitments or doing the bulk of domestic work may grow resentful.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not the only time work schedules may have caused an issue, either. A\u00a0source told Life & Style in 2024, \u201cThey\u2019ve been spending a lot of time away from each other the past several months. It\u2019s been frustrating,\u201d adding,\u00a0\u201cGwen and Blake used to be inseparable, but that\u2019s changed.\u201d They noted the two rang in the New Year apart, which seems like a red flag for two people so determined to spend time together.<\/p>\n
They seemed to have different levels of enthusiasm about marriage<\/h4>\n
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton appeared to have differing takes on if and when they should get married before they took the plunge. Appearing on \u201cThe Ellen DeGeneres Show\u201d in 2018, DeGeneres asked Stefani about the possibility of tying the knot, to which the singer responded, \u201cI think about it all the time.\u201d The talk show host asked if Shelton thought about getting down on one knee, to which Stefani laughed and said, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d But Shelton, who was married twice before finding love with his California girl, didn\u2019t seem so enthusiastic. While speaking on CMT that same year, he said of getting engaged again, \u201cI think about it. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s anytime soon or anything. The more time that goes by, I guess, the closer you\u2019d be getting to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The red flag? Shelton\u2019s nonchalant approach to the future may have been a\u00a0sign he wasn\u2019t as invested in the relationship as Stefani. It\u2019s also potentially troubling if Stefani really didn\u2019t know if he seriously saw marriage in their future three years into their relationship if that was something she wanted. \u201cIf the woman is simply waiting for the man to pop the question, then it suggests that this huge life step isn\u2019t actually something that they are evaluating as a couple,\u201d Aimee Hartstein, licensed clinical social worker and therapist, told Brides. \u201cThis is a big life step \u2014 discuss it outright.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton stunned the world when they started dating in 2015. After meeting on \u201cThe Voice\u201d (while married to other people), the two became… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2106,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions\/2106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grow24.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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