Gwen Stefani Admitted She Only Had 2 Romantic Relationships Before Blake Shelton

When Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton began dating in 2015, she was entering into her third romantic relationship. The singer has had high-profile relationships that have colored her music, but they’ve been long-term. She shared why she hasn’t dated much in her life.

Gwen Stefani said she only had 2 other relationships before she met Blake Shelton

In a 2016 interview, a journalist asked Stefani if it was true that she had only been in two romantic relationships before she met Shelton.

“You have to understand where I came from,” she told Vanity Fair. “My parents fell in love in high school, and I grew up in a very conservative home — family was sacred.”

Her first relationship was with her bandmate and their subsequent breakup provided fodder for the No Doubt album Tragic Kingdom. After that relationship ended, she married Bush singer Gavin Rossdale.

“When I met Tony [Kanal, bassist for No Doubt and Stefani’s first boyfriend], I was only 17, and I instantly was obsessed,” she said. “It was the only relationship I had really ever had. And when we broke up, I met Gavin [Rossdale]. I was so naïve; I never even lived with a guy.”

Shortly after separating from Rossdale, Stefani began a relationship with Shelton.

Gwen Stefani said she and Blake Shelton connected over their upbringings

When Stefani and Shelton began dating, many of her fans felt that it was an opposites attract romance. She said that while they were different, they also were more similar than it may seem.

“It’s definitely two different cultures. But there are many similarities, in things that we love and our ­morals,” she told Glamour. “But it’s really fun when you can learn about so many new things and share those differences.”

While she grew up in Southern California and he grew up in Oklahoma, she still had knowledge of country music before she met him.

“I’ve learned a lot about country music from him … But my first concert ever was [folk/country singer] Emmylou Harris,” she said. “My parents took me out of Girl Scouts to go to that show.”

She shared how her upbringing impacted 1 of her songs

Stefani said her sheltered upbringing led in part to the creation of the song “Just a Girl.”

“People will tell me, ‘You’re such a punk rebel,’ this or that, but I was not that growing up,” she said. “I was actually a super-sheltered, conservative girl. Now, there was probably a bit of me that was like, ‘Why do I have to be like that?’”

As she grew older, she began to think more about what it meant to be a woman.

“[W]hen you discover your sexuality — like when you’re little, you don’t notice it. Then suddenly you’re walking down the street and you’re whistled at. And you’re like, Oh, I have this power I didn’t know about,” she said, adding, “And you also discover you’re kind of prey. And you’re like, Wait, that’s confusing. So I wrote ‘Just a Girl,’ and I think that song is still relevant today. There are limits put on women, but why should there be?”