Blake Shelton Dishes On Divorce From Miranda Lambert, Says Girlfriend Gwen Stefani Saved His Life

Blake Shelton is getting candid about his split from Miranda Lambert and romance with Gwen Stefani. In a new interview, the “Sangria” singer admits that his split from Lambert was a dark time for him but says Stefani came into his life at the exact right moment.

“This time last year, there was no light at the end of the tunnel for me, personally,” Shelton told People magazine in an interview published Thursday. “There was a point there where I thought I didn’t even want to exist anymore.”

Shelton and Lambert announced last July that they were ending their four-year marriage. The couple had been together for more than a decade. “I told people I wished I could go into a coma and wake up a year from now,” he confessed.

Even though Shelton said his failed marriage was a hard time for him, the country singer was able to gain something positive out of it: a friendship with Stefani that eventually blossomed into a relationship. The pair went public with their relationship in November, just a few months after news broke of Shelton’s divorce. At the time, the No Doubt singer was also going through a difficult situation, having ended her 14-year marriage to Gavin Rossdale.

In an interview with Country Countdown USA, Shelton admitted that he wasn’t sure when the best time to go public with his romance with Stefani was but quickly realized that it was going to be hard to keep secret. “I found out — because it wasn’t someone from my hometown, it was Gwen Stefani that I was beginning to have this relationship with — there was no hiding it,” he said. “If I glance her way, it’s the cover of magazines. If I could have kept my personal life private, I would have. Since I can’t, I might as well let people in on the truth.”

In March, Stefani also dished on her bond with Shelton, telling Refinery 29 that he saved her, too, after her split from Rossdale. “You don’t know what’s going to happen. You panic,” she said. It was a really, super unexpected thing to find a friend, somebody who happened to be going through the exact same thing as me, literally mirroring my experience. I don’t think it’s an accident that that happened. It saved me.”