Blake Shelton Gave Gwen Stefani ‘Hope and Made Life Fun Again’: Inside Their Love Story

On her new song “Somebody Else’s,” Gwen Stefani sings about leaving an ex — and it ’s not hard to tell it’s about first husband Gavin Rossdale . “I don’t know what a heart like mine was doin’ in a love like that / I don’t know what a woman like me was doing with a man like you,” sings Gwen, who split from the Bush rocker, 58, in 2015 amid a nanny cheating scandal after nearly 13 years of marriage and 20 years as a couple. “But now I got a love so true,” she continues before pointedly declaring, “Now that I’ve found the real thing / You don’t compare.”

Her “real thing” — her everything — is Blake Shelton . Gwen has a lot to say about her former and current spouses on Bouquet . Debuting on November 15, it marks her first new solo pop album since 2016’s This Is What the Truth Feels Like , which she wrote in the wake of her divorce. “While Gwen paints a brutally honest picture of how toxic her relationship with Gav in was, she has much more to say about Blake and how finding true love with him saved her,” a source exclusively tells Life & Style , noting the married pair — who duet on “Purple Irises” on her upcoming record — celebrated their third wedding anniversary in July. “She’s been telling friends that falling in love with Blake at a time when she was so vulnerable turned everything around. He gave her confidence and hope and made life fun again.”

HEALING JOURNEY

The 55-year-old pop star has grown a lot since she last made a record about heartbreak. After she and Blake, 48 , unexpectedly fell for each other while working as coaches on The Voice and navigating 2015 breakups — Blake divorced fellow country music star Miranda Lambert , 40, that summer — Gwen had a lot to figure out, especially as she tried to raise sons Kingston , 18, Zuma, 16, and Apollo, 10, with her ex. “Eight years probably feels like a long time for a lot of people,” Gwen told Rolling Stone in September of the gap between her Top 40 radio projects (though she did release a Christmas album in 2017). “But for me, it was eight years of healing, eight years of transitioning.”

She’s done a lot of soul-searching away from the chaos of L.A. on Blake’s ranch in Oklahoma . The “Rock Steady” singer’s admitted she was a fish out of water there at first. Now, however, “it feels like home,” confirms the source. “Gwen says she and Blake live an easy, happy life in Oklahoma when they’re much joy in gardening together.”

In April, Blake gushed about how his wife “has an incredible sense for planting things: how to grow them and, once it’s growing, how to cultivate it.” While he prefers to farm on a large scale, “like corn or beans, acres at a time,” he explained, “she concentrates more on patches here and there and ends up farming things a little better than I do.” Gwen, he added, even “has her own tractor now.”

THE MISSING PIECE

The only thing that could possibly make life any sweeter? “ Having a child with Blake ,” says the source. “He fully stepped up as a stepfather to her boys and loves them like his own. And from the beginning, Blake assured Gwen that he would be happy whether they became parents together or not.”

As Life & Style has previously reported, they faced a heartbreaking IVF journey that was ultimately not working in Hollywood. They love the peace they have there.”

The self-proclaimed “makeup girl” has also turned into a bonafide farm girl . Though she and Blake are “so opposite in so many ways,” Gwen recently said, “we find so unsuccessful, “ but Gwen’s told friends that she still dreams of having a little girl,” says the source. Adoption, surrogacy and egg donation are all options the couple could explore. For now, though, Gwen has her hands full with her sons, dogs and a sick kitten — they named him Corn Shelton — that she and Blake nursed back to health and adopted in September.

Once broken, Gwen is now full of gratitude for all she has — her boys, her family, her career and the love of a good man. “The thing about Blake is that you’ll never get through a day without laughing,” Gwen shared on the October 2 episode of Jennifer Hudson ’s eponymous talk show, recalling what the country star still does that reminds her of why she fell in love with him . “Which is just — it doesn’t even matter, like, what’s going on. The guy has so much patience and so much kindness in his heart. It just makes you happier every single day.”