Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani's Full Relationship Timeline

It's tough to think of another celebrity couple cheered on more by fans than Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton. Perhaps that's because their respective fan bases are so different, given Stefani' came to fame as lead singer of ska-punk-pop outfit No Doubt, while country singer Shelton is firmly rooted in the Nashville singer-songwriter tradition. Another reason could be because their fans have become so invested in the relationship as it unfolded in public, every step of their romance breathlessly chronicled by the media.

Then there's the fact that their relationship emerged like a phoenix from the wreckage of their personal lives, after their respective marriages came to painfully public ends. Add it all up, and who wouldn't root for these two to get together? When these two stars finally made things official and tied the knot, it seemed somehow predestined, as if they'd always been meant for each other. 

As inevitable as it may all now appear in hindsight, initial reports of their romance certainly took their fans by surprise, given the two stars' starkly different public personas and musical histories. That's why it's so interesting to look back at how their relationship started, how it evolved and how they eventually came to become spouses. With that in mind, read on for a rundown of Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani's full relationship timeline.

Blake Shelton was well-known to country music fans, but was far from a mainstream celebrity when he was tapped to be a coach on "The Voice." When the show launched in 2011, he appeared alongside Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, singer Christina Aguilera and Gnarls Barkley's CeeLo Green. In 2014, Gwen Stefani joined the "The Voice" as a new coach. As a review in the Washington Post noted, she and fellow newbie Pharrell "proceeded to steal the two-hour premiere" in their debut appearance.

Even though Shelton had become a standout on the show (thanks in large part to the hilarity of his friendly rivalry with Levine), he was nonetheless an unknown entity to his future wife. "I'm gonna be brutally honest. When I first came on 'The Voice,' I didn't know that Blake even existed really in the world," she told NBC Insider. Working with him on the show, she explained, prompted her to do some research, leading her to conclude he was a talented singer-songwriter in his own right. As they got to know each other as colleagues, she added, she felt pulled to Shelton "like a magnet."

While viewers of "The Voice" watched the coaches banter and joke with each other, Blake Shelton's personal life was unravelling. In July 2015, ABC News reported that Shelton and his wife Miranda Lambert were divorcing after just four years of marriage. "This is not the future we envisioned," the two shared in a joint statement. 

The divorce was finalized within hours of the exes' announcement, reported Entertainment Tonight. As Shelton explained during an appearance on "The Bobby Bones Show" (via ET), because he and Lambert had no children and a prenuptial agreement, the process moved at a lightning pace. "It was like a nine or 10 day waiting period until it's over," he said.

The following month, Gwen Stefani and her husband, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, announced they were divorcing, followed by Us Weekly's shocking report that Rossdale had allegedly been cheating on his wife with their children's nanny. Speaking with Glamour in 2016, Stefani said she found the divorce to be both painful and humiliating. "I don't think you'll talk to one person who didn't make it in a marriage who's not gonna feel that way," she admitted. She also said that, despite all the media speculation, very few people really knew the actual circumstances underlying the divorce. "Nobody would believe it if I could really say what happened," she told Cosmopolitan. "I went through months and months of torture."

In retrospect, it was kismet that Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton were each going through their respective divorces while getting to know each other as co-stars on "The Voice." 

Appearing on "The Howard Stern Show," Stefani recalled Shelton breaking the news of his divorce to her and the other "The Voice" coaches, with Shelton having no idea that her own marriage was secretly on the brink of collapse. "I think I might have went white, and, like, I was in shock, because I felt like he was exposing me ... I just couldn't even get my head around it," Stefani said. It was during the blind auditions that Shelton came up to her, "the first time he's ever walked to my chair ... and I never saw him look so upset ... So then I was like, 'I gotta talk to you.'" Stefani opened up to Shelton about her own marital difficulties — at least as much as she could at the time, and their bond was forged. "So then we just started this friendship, which was just "unbelievable that God would put us in a position to have each other at that moment, in the same exact moment." 

"I won't forget that day," Shelton told Billboard, recalling Stefani's response to his divorce news. "I looked over at Gwen — who I didn't really know — and she had these huge tears in her eyes. I thought, 'Wow, she feels super bad for me!'"

As Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani continued to support each other through the pain of their respective divorces, rumors began swirling that the friendship between the two co-stars on "The Voice" was evolving into something more. In October 2015, she was confronted with the rumour that they were dating during an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "Have you read the news?" she joked. Shelton likewise poured cold water on the rumors. "The stuff I read about myself blows my mind," Shelton tweeted.

Despite their denials, the following month the rumor mill went into overdrive when the two were spotted together at a swanky Hollywood Halloween party. As ET reported, an eyewitness claimed the two were careful not to display any PDA during the party — which wasn't necessarily the case as the evening progressed. When exiting, the two were spotted holding hands, but quickly released each other's grasp when they spotted paparazzi lurking nearby.

Meanwhile, E! News shared some of those paparazzi pics, with some featuring Shelton placing his hand on Stefani's waist, and one with his arm over her shoulder. In a subsequent interview with Carson Daly, reported TooFab, Stefani once again laughed off rumors that they were a couple. "We're just trying to have fun, you know?" she insisted.

After those Halloween photos emerged of Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani getting cozy, the rumor that began as a spark had grown to become a three-alarm fire.

While the rumor raged, Stefani had a bit of fun by keeping people guessing. While appearing on "On Air with Ryan Seacrest," Stefani was asked about Shelton. She played coy. "Who's Blake?" she replied. "Oh, the country guy." When host Ryan Seacrest asked if the stories reporting they'd coupled up were true, Stefani implied the whole thing was a PR stunt engineered to drum up publicity for "The Voice." "I think NBC did that," she said. "Two divorced people, like, at the same time ..." Asked point blank whether she was dating Shelton, she responded, "I'm not gonna answer that right now, Ryan. And I think I've given up enough of myself this morning to you."

With the cat pretty much out of the bag, the pair — likely determining that every interview they did from there on out would be a repeat of Seacrest's grilling — decided it was time to come clean. Days after those photos were taken, a rep for Shelton confirmed to Today that yes, they were in fact dating. "Blake and Gwen work together and are both single and have recently started dating," the rep said.

Now that Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton had officially confirmed they were dating, it was time for the next milestone in any celebrity relationship: making their debut together as a couple on a red carpet. And for that, the couple chose an event as auspicious as they get: the 2016 edition of Vanity Fair's annual Oscar party. 

As USA Today reported, their outfits spoke volumes about their disparate backgrounds. Stefani wore a chic red dress from Yanina Couture, sheer and see-through but with satin flower petals appropriately positioned. Shelton, on the other hand, sported black jeans and cowboy boots, with a black blazer atop an untucked button-down shirt — also black.

Years later, Stefani discussed that particular gown during an appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show." "That was my first public date with Blake Shelton, actually," Stefani said, her declaration met with delighted shrieks from the studio audience. "That melts me when I see it," she said of seeing a photo of herself in the dress. "Because it's, like, such a memory for me. A good one."

Once they went public with their relationship, it didn't take long before Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani began collaborating musically. In April 2016, Shelton and Stefani unveiled their first (but not last) duet. Appearing on his album "If I'm Honest," the track — which they'd also co-written — was titled "Go Ahead and Break My Heart." The song got a major boost when the two performed it together on "The Voice." "This is a song that's so just incredibly honest — like brutally honest in some places," Shelton told "Access Hollywood" ahead of that "Voice" performance.

According to Shelton, they were initially a bit reluctant to collaborate on a song. "We were at a point where it's like, 'Do we want to go there? What will people think?'" he explained in an interview with People. "And then we finally just got to the point where it's like, 'You know what? I don't give a s**t."

Over the course of their relationship, Stefani and Shelton continued to join together musically; as of April 2023, they had released three more joint singles: "Happy Anywhere," "Nobody But You," and the holiday track "You Make It Feel Like Christmas." 

Ever since bringing their romance out in the open, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani have made it a habit to be as open with the media as possible. That was particularly true when Shelton sat down with Billboard in 2016 for what turned out to be a highly candid interview. Discussing "If I'm Honest," the album he wrote and recorded in the months after his divorce from Miranda Lambert, Shelton acknowledged that writing and singing the songs was both painful and cathartic. 

"When you have a broken heart — at least, when I do — you got to get it out of your system," he said of recording the album. "You want people to sympathize with you. I was at rock bottom, in the middle of hell."

Coming together with Stefani, at such a critical moment in both their lives, proved to be a powerful antidote for the anguish he was experiencing. "Gwen saved my life," Shelton declared, describing how their relationship evolved from two damaged people helping each other through a terrible time to something far more. "It went from checking in on each other once a week through email ... 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," Shelton admitted.

Not only did getting together help Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton heal from the pain of their failed marriages, the relationship also did wonders for both from a PR standpoint. With their visibility raised, Shelton was propelled to a whole new level of celebrity when, in 2017, he was named People's Sexiest Man Alive. The characteristically humble Shelton offered a joking response when asked what his first thought was upon learning the news. "That y'all must be running out of people," he quipped. "Like, Wow, we're down to somebody who is somewhat symmetrical."

Following Shelton's sexy honor, rumors began bubbling about whether or not Shelton would soon be popping the question. In May 2019, he paid a visit to "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," where host Ellen DeGeneres told him about the time she'd gifted Jennifer Lopez a clock, with instructions to present it to then-boyfriend Alex Rodriguez to remind him that "the clock is ticking" so he would hurry up and propose already. When DeGeneres presented Shelton with a clock of his own, he joked, "So you're saying ... there's a chance she's going to ask me to marry her? You're saying with this clock. You see how I flipped it around and put it on her?" 

Not long after, Shelton was interviewed by Entertainment Tonight, and asked what Stefani thought of his suggestion that she be the one to pop the question. "She goes, 'You know this is not how this is gonna work,'" he said.

When the world shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton found themselves in a situation that they had never experienced before. With all their showbiz responsibilities suddenly paused, the couple had the unique opportunity to focus on themselves, with no outside distractions. As they quarantined together at Shelton's Oklahoma ranch, they grew even closer than they'd already become.

Of course, it wasn't just the two lovebirds shacked up on Shelton's ranch. As the singer explained during a virtual appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Stefani's kids were also along for the ride. "We are quarantined with a bunch of Stefanis," Shelton cracked. "I'm talking about a pile of 'em."

While many couples, forced into close contact for months on end, decided to break up during the pandemic, Shelton declared that the opposite was true in their case. "You wake up and look at the news and you're starting to realize that this quarantine is not working out too well for a lot of people who are finding out ... they don't like being around each other as much as they thought they did, which is terrible," Shelton remarked in an interview with SiriusXM's "The Storme Warren Show." "She and I have experienced the opposite, you know, and we've been having a blast."

In late October of 2020, both Gwen Stefani made a big announcement via Instagram. In Stefani's Instagram post, he shared a photo of himself kissing Gwen Stefani as she holds up her left hand, accented by a huge diamond engagement ring. "Yes please," she wrote in a comment. Shelton also made the announcement on Twitter. "Hey @gwenstefani thanks for saving my 2020... And the rest of my life.. I love you. I heard a YES!" he wrote, accompanying the same photo. Responding to a congratulatory tweet from evangelical pastor Rick Warren, Shelton wrote, "Thank you sir. We are extremely excited."

Stefani subsequently appeared on "On Air with Ryan Seacrest," where she shared her own excitement at becoming engaged to Shelton. "It's so funny to even say 'engaged,'" Stefani mused. "It feels so weird. People have been saying it for so long, like five years."

As for their wedding plans, Stefani said she didn't want to attempt to throw a big wedding in the midst of a global pandemic. "My parents wouldn't come to Thanksgiving because they're so scared so really would rather it not be a COVID situation," she explained. "Like, I would rather not have masks and that kind of thing," she added, noting that she and her fiancé were going to reassess the situation in the months to come.

In December 2020, Us Weekly reported that Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani were heading to the altar, with sources indicating the wedding would take place sometime in 2021. According to one source, Shelton had some big plans for the ceremony and had been laying the foundation — literally, as it turned out. "Blake built a chapel on the grounds of his Oklahoma ranch. He did it himself with help," said the source. "It's really a tribute to their love. They are going to get married in the chapel, most likely early next year."

Sure enough, on July 1, Page Six reported that the couple had filed for a marriage licence in Oklahoma. A few days later, Page Six reported that the two had wed in an intimate ceremony held in the chapel that Shelton had built on his ranch, just outside Tishomingo, Oklahoma. They subsequently took to Instagram to share photos from the wedding. "July 3rd 2021 dreams do come true !!!" wrote Stefani in the caption, adding, "@blakeshelton i love you."

In 2022, Stefani posted a brief video on TikTok, in which she sang virtually with husband Blake Shelton and John Legend, who was a coach alongside Shelton on "The Voice." She wrote in the caption, "#duet this if you're going to be a Coach on #TheVoice this fall," indicating her impending return to the show. 

During the fall 2022 season, Stefani and Shelton competed against each other, something they had done plenty of times in the past — but now, for the first time as husband and wife. "I was really nervous to come back this season, being married to Blake. I don't know why," Stefani confided during an interview with E! News. "It'd just been a while and I didn't know what we were gonna act like." 

However, she subsequently revealed that all those nerves she was experiencing about returning to "The Voice" alongside the man who was now her husband quickly evaporated. "I don't know why I was nervous, but as soon as I walked off set, it felt very nostalgic, like when I met him and then it just was, like, easy," she said during an appearance on "Today." "This season, for me, has probably been my most relaxed season."