Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton began dating in 2015. Here’s what those close to her said about how Stefani behaved.

Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton began dating as they were both dealing with the fallout from their respective divorces. They said they were lifelines for one another during these difficult times. The change in Stefani was apparently quite noticeable. Her musical collaborators recalled seeing a near-instant change in her.

Gwen Stefani underwent an immediate change when she started dating Blake Shelton

When Stefani returned to her job on The Voice after her divorce, she felt a great deal of trepidation. Though she felt her personal life was in shambles, the end of her marriage was still a secret. This wasn’t easy for her to sit with.

“I’m not a secret girl,” she told The New York Times. “I tell everybody when my period is coming.”

Soon, though, she learned that Shelton “had been going through literally the exact same thing in literally the exact same time frame.” They grew closer because of their shared experience. Before long, their friendship turned romantic. Her songwriting partner, Justin Tranter, said he noticed a near immediate change from the heartbroken Stefani.

“We had anger, we had sadness, we had flirtation, we had sexy, and now we’re madly in love,” he said.

Blake Shelton said he changed for the better because of Gwen Stefani

Shelton noticed a difference within himself when he began dating Stefani. He believed he’d changed for the better.

“I don’t want to remember what I was like before Gwen, actually,” he told Entertainment Tonight backstage at The Voice.

He said she made him a kinder person.

“I’m a little bit of a jerk to you still,” he joked to fellow Voice coach, Kelly Clarkson. “But I was a jerk to everybody … Look how nice I am now!”

They supported each other through difficult times

After her divorce, Stefani felt her life had fallen apart. Her relationship with Shelton helped her pick up the pieces.

“Something that I wanted since I was a little girl is to be married and have this love that I saw my parents have and have babies,” she told People. “That dream was completely ruined; it was crushed, and I had to figure out how I was going to move forward and make a new dream, and God putting Blake in my life was just that miracle.”

Shelton also said that Stefani had saved him during one of the most challenging periods of his life.

“Gwen saved my life,” he told Billboard. “Who else on earth could understand going through a high-profile divorce from another musician? You can’t even imagine the similarities in our divorces.”

The couple married in a small, intimate wedding ceremony in 2021.