The No Doubt frontwoman graces the cover of 'NYLON' ahead of the band's big Coachella performance.
Gwen Stefani is setting the record straight about her marriage to Blake Shelton. The "Hollaback Girl" singer opens up about the state of their relationship and how her "insecurities" led to their latest collaboration.
"The truth is I am in love with my best friend," she says in an interview for NYLON's 25th anniversary issue, on newsstands April 16. "And all this s**t I'm thinking of in my brain, that's all it is -- I'm overthinking."
To be clear, Stefani shuts down any rumors about tumult in the couple's relationship.
"When you're in love and have truly aligned values, nobody can get to us. You can say whatever you want to say about our relationship -- I mean, a week ago we were getting divorced again or something," she says in reference to tabloid headlines about the pair. "It's just lies. The truth is the truth, and we know what that is."
Stefani is gearing up to perform at Coachella with No Doubt in Indio, California, later this month. While she admits that they "haven't really hung out or done anything" as of late, she does have a new collaboration out now with Shelton. The real-life couple dropped their latest duet, "Purple Irises," in February.
"I had been going through those times where you're questioning, 'Oh my gosh, am I just getting older? Am I cute?'" she shares. "In my own relationship, even though I know the truth of what's happening today, you still create drama in your own mind about your insecurities and what might happen. I was in that phase of the relationship with Blake and getting paranoid."
With "Purple Irises," Stefani and Shelton harmonize as they reflect on the passage of time in a relationship and sticking with the one you love.
"Everything fades, everything dies / Put me in a vase, but you can't / You can't stop time," Stefani croons on the nostalgic anthem. "It's not 1999 / But this face is still mine / The way you look at me / I swear my heart hits rewind."
On the chorus, Shelton jumps back in as they vocalize together.
"Wonder why you took a risk / On a broken heart you cannot fix," the couple sings. "No, I never knew a love like this / Now I'm picking purple irises."
Shelton and Stefani famously met on the set of The Voice in 2014 and married in July 2021. Stefani shares three children -- sons Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10 -- with her ex-husband, Gavin Rossdale.
"I told this to Blake the other day: 'You don’t understand — to be a mom and a wife and then write a record?' Everybody might be like, 'Why did it take so long?' Well, OK, I want to see you try to find five seconds to get creative," she tells NYLON of the challenges associated with motherhood. "It's so hard to squeeze it into the life that I have."
In fact, Stefani suspects that having children impacted her career and her relationship with her former bandmates negatively. She tells the mag that record executive Jimmy Iovine had called on her to hit the recording studio with Akon just weeks after she gave birth to her eldest child in 2006.
"I was like, 'What are you talking about?,'" Stefani recalls. "The baby's nine weeks old."
Then, it wasn't long before she learned she was pregnant again.
"I think everyone was disappointed," she says of her bandmates' reaction to the news. "I don't think they would say that. No one's going to be mad you're having a baby. But while I was busy, they were waiting."
The 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is set to run April 12-14 and April 19-21 featuring headlining sets from Lana Del Rey, Tyler, the Creator and Doja Cat. No Doubt has a special honorary mention on the bill.
The two shows, Stefani tells NYLON, will "be a really nice bow to tie on the relationship, because we were kids [when we met]."
Stefani's cover story marks the outlet's reintroduction of its print magazine for the first time since 2017. NYLON will also have a presence at the festival with its returning NYLON House.
In a recent interview with ET, Stefani gushed about putting out new music in 2024.
"I'm excited about that," she said. "I've been working on this for a long time. I've finally landed in that place where I'm obsessed, where I can't stop listening, so I feel like I'm somewhere."
