Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton dated for years before they got married. According to Stefani, this was not because she wasn’t sure if Shelton was the right person for her. While she admitted that they began talking about marriage early in their relationship, they knew they had to wait before they tied the knot. She spoke about how they approached their relationship.
Gwen Stefani said she and Blake Shelton had to heal before they married
Stefani and Shelton weren’t just concerned with themselves when they began their relationship. They wanted to make sure their families could adjust to their romance.
“I think there was a lot to consider when you have so many people involved,” Stefani said on Today (via People). “Children, and their hearts, and everybody in my family [and] his family, we all went through a lot together.”
She said their lengthy period of dating didn’t mean that they weren’t excited to get married. They both went through divorces shortly before they started dating, and wanted to make sure they healed from them.
“So I think in a romantic way, when you fall in love so hard and so unexpectedly — and so late in your life — you think ‘I want to marry you!’ That’s the first romantic reaction, like, ‘Let’s get married,’” she said. “So we always talked about it, of course, and I think that as the years were going by, it didn’t need to happen. There was a lot of healing to do.”
Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton married in 2021
Stefani and Shelton became engaged in 2020. They wanted to make sure they waited until all their friends and family members could gather before they hosted their wedding.
“Ever since they got engaged, they have both been adamant that no wedding will happen until it’s safe for family and friends to attend. Gwen expressed early on that she really wanted a summer wedding,” a source said. “She was upset earlier this year when it seemed to be no end in sight for the pandemic. She slowly started planning the wedding this spring though.”
The source said that both Stefani and Shelton were eager to marry.
“They are both ecstatic that it can finally happen. They are getting married this summer. Gwen’s boys will be very involved,” the insider added. “Blake is a great extra dad and very close with the boys.”
They both spoke about how much they meant to each other after their divorces
Shelton and Stefani both went through divorces at the same time. Shelton said he felt incredibly grateful to know someone going through the same thing.
“Gwen saved my life,” he told Billboard. “Who else on earth could understand going through a high-profile divorce from another musician? You can’t even imagine the similarities in our divorces.”
Stefani felt similarly.
“[I felt] exposed somehow, you know? But it was like being handed this gift of a friend who was going through the exact same thing at the exact same time,” she told Harper’s Bazaar, adding, “And then it was just like everything flipped. It went from horrible to, like, hopeful and, like, ‘Wow, God, you just don’t know what’s gonna happen next.’”
