Prior to her divorce from Gavin Rossdale, Gwen Stefani didn’t talk much about her personal life.
Things have changed for the Orange County native, who has gone (very) public with boyfriend, Blake Shelton.
Stefani covers the August issue of Harper’s Bazaar, and since high fashion is her version of lounge wear, it was no surprise to see page after page of the singer posing in gorgeous threads at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Stefani said she’s an open book, for the most part. There are some things she needs to keep private because of her children, she explained.
Stefani has three sons with Rossdale – Kingston, 10, Zuma, 7 and Apollo, 2.
“As a famous person, you start to think,’I can’t say all that because I’ll embarrass them or hurt them in some way.’ And especially now because they can see everything and hear everything.
“But I’ve done nothing I’m ashamed of …” she said with a laugh.
“Well, we all have a few things we’re ashamed of.”
Stefani reflected back on her life up until now, which was filled with music, boyfriends and then her husband, whom she married in 2002.
Her youngest son was “only 11 months old when everything happened,” Stefani explained, referring to an alleged affair between Rossdale and the couple’s nanny, Mindy Mann in February 2015.
“Everybody knows what happened next,” Stefani said.
“February 9,” she recalls. “I obviously know the date.
“It was the beginning of hell. Like six, seven, eight months of torture, trying to figure out this big secret.”
Though Stefani admitted she wanted to “tell everybody” what happened, she had to hold back so that her boys wouldn’t be embarrassed.
Stefani got back to work. She joined, started to write songs for her album, This Is What The Truth Feels Like, and embarked on her romance with Shelton.
“What happened was praying,” Stefani said of coming back from what felt like the end of her world.
“That’s my childhood, that’s how I was raised. And I think I strayed from that. But you know when it gets that bad, you just get desperate? You’re on your knees. You’re like, ‘What do I do?’ You can’t even go to your parents and ask them what to do.”
The toughest part for Stefani is sharing custody with Rossdale. Only spending half of her time with the boys is still hard on her.
“All I wanted my whole life was to have babies, be married, like what my parents have. Then I remember thinking,’There’s gotta be a reason for this.’ Of course you go through the ‘Why me?’ and feel sorry for yourself.
“But then I was like, ‘No, this happened to me already and I made something good out of it,’ and that was Tragic Kingdom.”
We have a feeling good things are still to come.
