Why Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani Weren’t Friends During Her First Season of Coaching ‘The Voice’

Some celebrity couples hit it off right away. But that wasn’t the case for Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani. They met through working on The Voice and Shelton explained why they weren’t friends during their first season together.

Gwen Stefani joined ‘The Voice’ Season 7

The first time Stefani joined the cast was for season 7 in 2014. The other coaches were Shelton, Adam Levine, and Pharrell Williams.

The season came down to Craig Wayne Boyd from Team Blake winning the season. Shelton was still married to Miranda Lambert. Stefani was married to Gavin Rossdale and recently had a baby named Apollo.

Rossdale was her team’s advisor for the season. “I was really anxious about it, but it’s been really fun. He’s really smart. He knows his way around a few words,” Stefani joked in a Screen Slam interview with Rossdale.

“It’s kinda fun to be at work but be at work with my wife ’cause we never do that. Normally we work and go home and see each other so I kinda like that,” he said.

Stefani said they bickered at home about what the team should do. That season she didn’t interact with Shelton as much.

Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton weren’t friends during that season

The singers weren’t close during Stefani’s first season. He explained why in an interview with People. He said the first time they met was after her performance of “Hollaback Girl” and the announcement she was joining the show.

“I remember enjoying her performance, and then after the show, we all took a group picture,” he said. “It was very much an industry-type meeting, and I told people, ‘I met Gwen Stefani. That’s crazy.'” He went on to explain why they didn’t become closer.

“She had just had a baby [Apollo, with Rossdale], so there wasn’t even much of a friendship that first season,” he said. “The thing I remember saying about her when people would ask was, ‘Oh my God, that girl is unbelievable. She drives a minivan to work!'”

He added, “I thought rock stars drove Rolls-Royces, and Gwen was driving a black minivan.”

They fell in love while getting divorces

Shelton and Stefani later got divorces. They bonded over this when the country singer told the other coaches.

“He basically told me what was going on with him. We just started this friendship. I wasn’t trying to start a relationship. I was just trying to not die. There was no plan,” she told Howard Stern. “It was an incredible gift to be able to have a friend.”

That friendship later turned to romance. The couple confirmed their relationship in 2015. They later got engaged in 2020.