Miranda Lambert And Blake Shelton: Here's What Really Happened Between Them
What really happened between Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton? It seemed like one minute the couple were #relationshipgoals, and the next they were on the rocks in a very public way. While it couldn't have been easy to have such a high-profile marriage, Lambert and Shelton really seemed genuinely in love for a long time. Alas, they just couldn't make it work in the end.
The subsequent split between Lambert and Shelton was about as acrimonious as it gets, something that tabloids and news publications alike reported on with abandon. This was after years of tabloid speculation that the two weren't going to make it, as noted by Rolling Stone, and who knows how that pressure had an impact on their private romance.
While many people have their own ideas as to why Lambert and Shelton divorced in 2015, there were actually a host of reasons that their once-sweet romance was sadly doomed. So if you're curious, read on to find out what really happened between Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton.
Blake Shelton was already married when he met Miranda Lambert
While Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton were one of the hottest couples in all of country music for a time, they were both involved with other people when they first met. But those commitments went out the window once the sparks started flying. "I've never had that kind of experience with anybody," Shelton revealed in an episode of VH1's Behind the Music (via Entertainment Weekly), recalling a duet they performed together. "I was a married guy, you know? Standing up there and singing with somebody and going, 'Man, this shouldn't be happening.'" Looking back on that moment, he added that he realized he was already falling in love with her.
Lambert felt the pull too, despite her engagement to country singer Jeff Allen McManus. "I knew he was married," she shared in 2011, as reported by People. "I knew better, like, this is off-limits." Hey, when you know, you know. So Shelton divorced his first wife and Lambert broke off her engagement so they could be together.
While Lambert and Shelton really were deeply in love, is it possible that the way they got together didn't bode well for their future?
Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton got engaged in 2010
In 2010, after five years of dating, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton finally got engaged. And as Lambert tells it, Shelton was a perfect gentleman when it came to popping the big question. "He called my dad and got his blessing first," she revealed in a chat with People. "That was so Southern and old-school and perfect." That really does sound romantic, like a throwback to a different era.
Shelton didn't just get that right, as he also managed to wow Lambert with his selection of a diamond-and-platinum engagement ring. "I was so proud of him," she continued. "We've been together five years, so he knew exactly what I wanted but it's so much more perfect than I could have picked out myself." Another point for Shelton!
In order to commemorate the occasion, Lambert and Shelton had an informal celebration that was totally them. "We had a couple of Bacardi and Diet Sprites — in a Solo cup," she added. Of course they did.
Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton tied the knot in 2011
Wedding bells rang for Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton on May 14, 2011, the day the couple became husband and wife. The pair tied the knot at a star-studded wedding on a Texas ranch, and Lambert sounded like she was over the moon with joy. "I'm just excited to be married," she gushed in an interview with People, "because I want to tell Blake I really can love him the rest of my life and be happy and make him happy."
After the wedding, Shelton took a break from his work commitments to spend the rest of the month with his new bride. "I mean no friends, no family, just she and I just hanging out for the good part of the month," he explained. "That will be good enough for us that she'll go back to wanting to kill me again and wishing that I would go back to work." Um, is it just us or is there a bit of a difference in tone here?
Blake Shelton was "always pestering" Miranda Lambert
After their fairy tale wedding, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton settled down, building their life together in Tishomingo, Okla. And while they likely enjoyed wedded bliss away from the bright lights of Nashville, Shelton couldn't help himself from trying to get a rise out of his wife. "I'm always pestering her," he shared in an interview with People. "I just cannot get enough because she gets irritated so quickly."
To that end, Shelton was constantly thinking of ways to prank Lambert, or otherwise fool her into believing one of his made-up stories. "Maybe I'll tell her one of her dogs is missing, let her believe it for ten minutes or so," he continued. "It's terrible! Anything I can think of to get a rise out of her is a sport for me."
While that certainly sounds like it could be a lot of fun, especially for Shelton, why would you want to irritate your spouse all the time? And wouldn't that get annoying after a while?
Being in a long-distance marriage took its toll on Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton
While Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton made their home in rural Oklahoma, Shelton's work commitments meant he wasn't at home very much. Not only was he a judge on the wildly popular show The Voice, but he also went on tour promoting his own music. Lambert also had obligations, as she's a totally successful musician in her own right. But despite this predicament, Lambert and Shelton managed to carve out time for themselves. "We won't go more than two weeks without seeing each other," Lambert told People.
That wasn't easy, either, as Shelton explained that it takes a good deal of effort to make it work. "You come up with all these different ideas and theories — 'We're going to make sure we have this many days together,'" he shared. "But the truth is that you just got to take advantage of every window of time that you have, and you can't force it to happen." That really doesn't sound like an ideal arrangement for a married couple, does it?
Blake Shelton tried to get Miranda Lambert to move to Los Angeles, but she wasn't having it
When Blake Shelton signed on to be a judge on The Voice, he knew that he was going to be spending a lot of time in Los Angeles. To that end, he had to look for a place where he could hang his hat at night when he wasn't in Oklahoma. And as he tells it, the place he picked wasn't a lonely little bachelor pad by any stretch of the imagination. "[I found] this big-a** nice house with a pool," he revealed to People. That's an... interesting choice for a home that's supposed to be temporary, or even a home away from home.
But Shelton also had hopes that he could endear Miranda Lambert to California living, although that didn't go over very well at all. "The first time she ever came, she was like, 'This is dumb. Why did you get a house this big?'" he continued. "And I was like, 'I thought you'd like it!'"
Clearly, homegirl did not, in fact, like Shelton's SoCal digs.
Was Blake Shelton more into The Voice than he was into Miranda Lambert?
Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton may have been #relationshipgoals whenever they were together, but, according to Lambert, the pressures of fame took a real toll on their marriage. "You are being pulled apart. Literally," she lamented in 2014, according to People. "Blake's person is pulling him that way, and my person is pulling me this way." It got to a point where they were both wondering when they'd get their time together.
However, it's possible that Lambert was the one doing most of the wondering, as Shelton has admitted she was the one making the effort to see him. "She does that for me way more than I've ever done that for her," he confessed in 2012. "She's always been the one to go through hell to make sure we spend time together."
It got to a point where Lambert reportedly "felt abandoned" by her husband and thought he cared more about The Voice than her, as sources told TMZ. It didn't help that she "hates" Los Angeles, where Shelton was working.
Was having children a deal-breaker for Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert?
One of the biggest questions many people have to ask themselves before they get married is whether or not they want to have children. That way, you can make sure that you and your partner both want the same thing. Well, when it came to Blake Shelton's stance on the issue, he wasn't shy about his desires. "When I see my mom and dad with their grandkids and that relationship down the road, that's what I'm looking forward to more than anything," he shared in 2011, as noted by People. "That family and those generations and being on that end of things."
However, a year after Shelton expressed his desire to have children, Miranda Lambert didn't sound quite as enthusiastic about the issue. "That's the one thing I really want to plan the right way, because I don't want to have children and raise them on a plane or a bus," she revealed. "Right now, we're both at our peak and having a blast, and I don't think either one of us [is] thinking about changing a thing."
Miranda Lambert admits she's not "sunshine and roses," but Blake Shelton is an optimist
For as much as Blake Shelton made Miranda Lambert a seriously happy woman — for a while, anyway — that didn't mean that she walked around with a smile on her face 24/7; that just isn't in her nature. "I'm not sunshine and roses," she confessed in an interview with Marie Claire. "Blake's the happiest person on the planet. He pulls me out of my darkness." Well, opposites do attract, as the old adage goes.
Additionally, Shelton once referred to Lambert as "complicated," which understandably threw her for a loop. "She was like, 'What the hell is that supposed to mean?' But it is the best way I know to describe her," he explained. "That's what I admire about her. Her complications." Um, thanks?
Lambert added that she believes all girls are complicated. That may or may not be true, but it's certainly an odd compliment.
Blake Shelton is a serious extrovert, while Miranda Lambert is an introvert
Miranda Lambert is an award-winning country music superstar, capable of packing concert halls and performing in front of thousands of people. But when the lights go down and the crowd goes home, Lambert sounds more like an introvert than an extrovert — and that was especially the case when she was a young girl. "Miranda started off extremely shy," her mother told Marie Claire. "She wouldn't speak. Not a word at school. If she had to order her own food, she'd just not eat." Now that is shy.
While Lambert eventually warmed up to the world a bit more, given that she and Blake Shelton made their home in rural Oklahoma, you can deduce that she still was more interested in the quiet life. "I make sure I spend good quality time with my husband, where it's just us being normal," she mused in 2014. "It's like, 'Let's go back-roading today, just me and you.'" Given that Shelton looks more at home on a stage in Los Angeles than he does anywhere else, we'd say he's definitely more extroverted than his ex-wife is.
Did Miranda Lambert really trust Blake Shelton?
One of the most important things in any relationship, whether romantic or otherwise, is the ability to have complete trust in one another. So in an effort to be as transparent as possible, Blake Shelton never hesitated to let Miranda Lambert go through his phone to prove he wasn't hiding anything. "That's really the kind of trust we have. There are no secrets," he told People. "[I'll say,] 'Go dig through my drawers or my computer if you feel like you need to.'" He added that offering that to Lambert had been good for their marriage, as he never wanted her to have doubts about his fidelity.
However, in the end, that wasn't enough to keep either Lambert or Shelton confident, according to one source. "Trust was an issue for both of them," the insider told E! News. "It went along with having to spend a lot of time apart." And in the end, things fell apart anyway.
Blake Shelton accused Miranda Lambert of infidelity and vice versa... and the fallout was intense
By the time 2015 rolled around, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton's marriage was on its last legs. By the middle of the year, they were officially on the rocks, and Shelton proceeded to file divorce papers. "We are real people, with real lives, with real families, friends and colleagues," the couple said in a statement obtained by E! News. "Therefore, we kindly ask for privacy and compassion concerning this very personal matter."
However, that didn't mean there wasn't any acrimony, as both parties accused the other of infidelity, as noted by TMZ. It got so bad that the people they each accused the other of cheating with — Cady Groves and Chris Young — got caught up in the fallout as well. According to Groves' older brother, her career took a hit because of the allegations. "She lost her record deal," he revealed to Radar Online. "She lost an album she spent years on."
Young also took to Twitter to deny his involvement in Shelton and Lambert's divorce, calling both parties his friends. What an absolute mess!
Miranda Lambert reportedly suspected that Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani might get together
When Blake Shelton was going through his divorce from Miranda Lambert, he was utterly heartbroken. "I was at rock bottom, in the middle of hell," he recalled in an interview with Billboard. He even stayed at his friend Adam Levine's house for a while to help him cope with his grief.
Shelton also found a friend in Gwen Stefani, who was going through her own high-profile divorce from Gavin Rossdale after 20 years. But as they got closer, confiding in one another about their marital fallouts, Shelton realized he'd fallen in love with her. "Next thing I know, I wake up and she's all I care about, and I'm wondering if she feels the same about me," he continued. Of course, she did, and the rest is history. Now you can't escape their romance!
As for how Lambert felt about Shelton's new relationship? "She was not surprised to hear of the romance between Blake and Gwen," a source told E! News. "They were always pretty flirty."
Miranda Lambert moved on from Blake Shelton pretty quickly
Just as Blake Shelton moved on from Miranda Lambert, so too did Lambert move on from Shelton. In fact, she wasted no time finding a new beau, as she was dating musician Anderson East before 2015 was over. "She couldn't have picked a better dude to have fun with," a friend of East told Us Weekly. "Anderson is the coolest guy."
However, that relationship wasn't meant to be, as Lambert and East split up two years later, as noted by another article in Us Weekly.
Fortunately for Team Lambert, the Pistol Annies singer did finally get her happily-ever-after and became one of several singers who have really gorgeous husbands: In November of 2018, Lambert met then-NYPD officer Brendan McLoughlin outside of the Good Morning America studio in New York City. Clearly the pair were hardcore smitten with one another right away, as they tied the knot in a secret wedding just three months later. So, what's the real reason Miranda Lambert keep her wedding a secret? "I was married before, and it was a huge wedding and everything was very public," she explained in a chat with People. "With Brendan, I made it a point to keep it as private as I could for as long as I could." All's well that ends well, then!
Was Blake Shelton's cryptic tweet about Miranda Lambert?
Even though Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert ended their romantic relationship in 2015, fans have suspected that each of them has referenced the other in some way long after the fact. After all, it can take a while to fully heal from a divorce, especially one that was as messy as Shelton and Lambert's (via Billboard).
In particular, fans were riled by a cryptic tweet that Shelton made in April of 2018, a good three years after his split from Lambert. "Been taking the high road for a long time... I almost gave up," he wrote. "But I can finally see something on the horizon up there!! Wait!! Could it be?! Yep!! It's karma!!"
So what exactly could Shelton be talking about? Well, it's possible that he was responding to renewed rumors that Lambert had started seeing her then-boyfriend Evan Felker while she and Shelton were still hitched (via Country Living). Is that really the case? We'll never know, unless either of the bitter exes get candid about it.
Is this Blake Shelton breakup song about Miranda Lambert?
For as long as there has been music, there have been jilted lovers and pining exes writing breakup songs about their formerly beloved partners. To that end, it's only natural to wonder if Blake Shelton penned a breakup song about Miranda Lambert. And we suspect that he has.
Consider Shelton's 2016 track "She's Got a Way With Words" from If I'm Honest. In the song, Shelton croons, "She put the ex in sex / She put the low in blow / She put a big F.U. in my future / Yeah, she's got a way" (via Entertainment Tonight). That... doesn't exactly sound like a pleasant memory of a marriage.
But is the song really about Lambert? It's possible, given that when discussing the title of the album, Shelton said, "I just want to tell the truth about what happened" (via E! News). It stands to reason, then, that Shelton was processing his divorce on this record. It sure sounds like it!
Miranda Lambert might have referenced Blake Shelton in this song
Of course, it takes two to tango, as the old adage goes, so, if Blake Shelton can compose a breakup song about Miranda Lambert, she can do the same about him. So when Lambert released a single in 2018, with her girl group, the Pistol Annies, fans suspected that the track — entitled "Got My Name Changed Back" — was about her divorce from Shelton (via Country Living).
While the single did drop several years after her split from Shelton, you'd be hard-pressed to argue that Lambert is singing about someone other than her ex. "I don't wanna be a Mrs. on paper no more / I got my name changed back," she declares in the chorus (via Country Living). Then, later in the song, Lambert and her bandmates gleefully belt in unison, "I broke his heart and I took his money." Oof.
Of course, we can only speculate as to who Lambert is referring to in "Got My Name Changed Back," but you can do the math.