Gwen Stefani's Most Emotional Confession About Blake Shelton's Role In Her Self-Esteem Journey

Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, two of the coaches from NBC's hit singing competition TV show "The Voice", started dating in 2015 and tied the knot six years later. Viewers witnessed their relationship bloom on camera, but what many don't know is how Stefani's forever person soothed her multi-decade-long self-esteem issues.

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Stefani rose to fame in the mid-1990s as the lead singer of the band "No Doubt". Stefani was in her mid-twenties then, but her body image issues started much earlier. "I was thinking about eighth grade," she told Drew Barrymore in "The Drew Barrymore Show" in November 2024. "I'm like staring in the mirror in the gym, right, like by myself going, 'Am I cute? I can't tell.' You know when you're trying to figure out if you are or not?" This is no news for die-hard Stefani fans. In 1996, the "Just a Girl" hit-maker said in an interview with MTV that she was "chubby" growing up, and that her mom put her on a diet at a young age. "I had a really a big Italian grandma, like this big . . . like a house," (via Us Weekly

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Falling in love, though, changed her perspective. She shared with Barrymore the details of her new song "Pretty", where she sings, "I never felt pretty 'til you loved me. I always felt pretty, pretty, pretty unlucky." The tear-jerking song is about no other than her husband Blake Shelton, written after a revelatory moment she had while looking at her photos from the past and realizing how low her self-esteem had been in most of those moments. She told Barrymore that the moment of her life when she felt her most beautiful was "right when Blake started loving (her)."

Music is their love language

When Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani met on set in 2014, they were both going through challenging divorces: Stefani with Gavin Rossdale, and Shelton with Miranda Lambert. The "Hollaback Girl" singer was especially brokenhearted as Rossdale had been having an affair with their nanny. In her song "Pretty", there's a moment where she sings, "'I'll never be adored,' that's what I used to tell myself, and what's a heart for when it doesn't even love that well?" It all points to Shelton being her first true love, even if he arrived at her life when she was 45. The song goes on to say, "My petals are falling, then you showed up and you said that you're all in."

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Shelton and Stefani have celebrated their love in duets—fitting for two musical lovebirds. The song "Happy Anywhere" topped the country charts in 2020 and became a fan favorite. "Nobody But You", "Go Ahead and Break My Heart", and" You Make It Feel Like Christmas", are other duets by the couple that are a testament to their love for each other and for music. 

"[You] looked into my eyes and showed me what I couldn't see," Stefani sings to her other half in "Pretty". "I didn't see the light, now I sparkle like a diamond ring."

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