Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale. SteveSands/NewYorkNewswire/MEGA; Heike Zwanziger/Future Image/Cover Images

Gwen Stefani explained how husband Blake Shelton changed her life after a series of ups and downs with ex Gavin Rossdale.

“Meeting my husband felt like a second chance at life, because when my family fell apart it was a catastrophe,” Stefani, 55, told The Guardian in an interview published on Thursday, November 14. “How do you pick yourself up from that? But God put this other person there to love me.”

While she didn’t mention him by name, Stefani was referring to her past marriage to Rossdale, 59. The former couple were married for 12 years and share three kids together, Kingston, 18, Zuma, 16 and Apollo, 10. Following their 2015 split, Stefani moved on with Shelton, 48. They married in July 2021.

“I know this sounds weird, but Blake and I came together in gardening,” the singer told The Guardian. “We have a house together in Oklahoma and during the pandemic we came across this very old building on the land and there were some purple irises, which someone must have planted centuries ago, but they’ve survived. I wrote the song ‘Purple Irises’ about that and how it feels to find true love and the insecurities of not wanting to lose it.”

The song is included on Stefani’s latest album, Bouquet, which was released on Friday, November 15. The record was inspired by the singer’s relationship, but she also pulled from the yacht rock music she listened to when growing up.

Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton. Curtis Hilbun / AFF-USA.com / MEGA TheMegaAgency.com

“I felt like the songs were me going back to high school and trying to put on my prom dress and saying: ‘Here I am again!’ Like, no, you can’t — you have to evolve,” she said. “I wanted the songs, sonically, to represent more of who I am today.”

Including Shelton’s voice on “Purple Irises” helped with that evolution.

“When he heard ‘Purple Irises,’ he loved it so much he ended up singing on it. I love singing with him,” she gushed of her husband. “He’s very humble and doesn’t realize how good he is. There’s something so attractive about that.”

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When it comes to another collaboration in the future, Stefani said she “would love to” make an album with Shelton. “I never listened to country music, so while Blake was super successful, I never even knew he existed before I met him,” she admitted.

Aside from sharing the good parts of her current relationship on the new record, Stefani also appeared to shade Rossdale with the “Somebody Else’s” song lyrics.

“I don’t know what a heart like mine was doin’ in a love like that,” she sings on the first verse. “I don’t know what a woman like me was doing with a man like you / But now I got a love so true.”