The 50-year-singer calls her beau 'one of the greatest gifts.'
Gwen Stefani is thankful for her relationship with Blake Shelton!
The 50-year-old singer covers the November issue of Shape and opens up about how dating Shelton -- the pair got together in 2015 -- helped her cope after her public divorce from Gavin Rossdale.
"I feel as if I spent the last four years healing, you know, trying to build my life again," she shares. "Having a best friend like Blake to help me do that has been one of the greatest gifts."
Stefani also gushes over her simple pleasures with Shelton, which include playing tennis "badly" together and visiting his Oklahoma ranch.
"Spending time in the middle of America [on Blake's ranch] -- that's something I didn't expect," she says of her life. "The way we live at the ranch is really simple. There are watermelons that Blake planted and all my wild flowers.
"It's a nice contrast to L.A., although I do keep 20 chickens in the backyard here at home too," she adds.
That busy life Stefani lives includes professional commitments -- filming The Voice with Shelton and doing her Just a Girl residency in Las Vegas -- and personal ones -- her three sons with Rossdale, Kingston, 13, Zuma, 11, and Apollo, 5 -- both of which she works hard to balance.
"Balance is the hardest thing, but it's also the most important -- being with my family, having time with Blake where we just watch movies," she says. "It seems like, with your career, you have to keep swimming, keep moving, or else you're going to look back and go, 'Shoot, it's over.' I don't like feeling like that. I want to do creative things when I want, and I want to stop chasing all the time. It's hard, but I'm really enjoying being in the moment."
"... I love having projects. But I also love to be in my bed and have downtime," she adds. "I love to know that I don't have the guilt of being so busy that I miss out on taking my kids to school."
As for her personal and professional relationships with Shelton, a source told ET in August that the pair are "truly like a married couple who hasn't lost that spark."
"Gwen seems secure and happy to be back. Their relationship is so different from when they first started dating on The Voice," the source said. "... [It] has been really sweet, because The Voice is where they fell in love, so being back on set seems to have stirred up some cute memories."
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