Gwen Stefani Says Her "Dreams Were Shattered" During Gavin Rossdale Divorce

"All I wanted my whole life was to have babies, be married, like what my parents have," she says

By Francesca Bacardi Jul 06, 2016 1:06 PMTags
Gwen Stefani, Harper's BazaarAlexi Lubomirski/Harper's Bazaar

Gwen Stefani has happily moved on with Blake Shelton, but that doesn't mean her divorce was smooth sailing.

The No Doubt frontwoman opens up about her divorce from Gavin Rossdale in Harper's Bazaar August issue and shares that the ending of her 14-year marriage was a low point in her life. "My dreams were shattered," she tells the magazine. "All I wanted my whole life was to have babies, be married, like what my parents have."

As if their split wasn't hard enough, Gwen also found it incredibly difficult to have to share custody of their three children, Kingston Rossdale, Zuma Rossdale and Apollo Rossdale. "It was so insane because not only did my family break up, but then my kids are taken away like half the time, so that was really like, 'What?! What did I do?'"

Gwen, 46, found strength in her music, which she also turned to when she and No Doubt band mate Tony Kanal ended their relationship after seven years together. "Of course you go through the 'Why me?' and feel sorry for yourself," she shares. "But then I was like, 'No, this happened to me already and I made something good out of it,' and that was Tragic Kingdom."

Alexi Lubomirski/Harper's Bazaar

Many of the songs on Tragic Kingdom, No Doubt's first major successful album, were inspired by Gwen and Tony's breakup. Gwen took a page out of her Tragic Kingdom notebook while recording her latest solo album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like, and infused the emotions she was feeling from her divorce into many of the album's tracks. But she wasn't willing to spill everything.

"It's because I have children," she explains. "As a famous person, you start to think, 'I can't say all that because I'll embarrass them or hurt them in some way.' And especially now because they can see everything and hear everything. But I've done nothing I'm shamed of...Well, we all have a few things we're ashamed of." 

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Alexi Lubomirski/Harper's Bazaar

Gwen also helped Blake get through his split from Miranda Lambert with a song for his album, If I'm Honest. Titled "Go Ahead and Break My Heart," the emotional duet became an instant hit. "I can't believe I'm number one on a country chart," Gwen quips.

Even more unbelievable to the rocker is the timing of her relationship with Blake. "It was like being handed this gift of a friend who was going through the exact same thing at the exact same time," she recalls, referencing Blake's split from Miranda. "And then everything flipped. It went from horrible to, like, hopeful and like, 'Wow, God, you just don't know what's gonna happen next.'"

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