Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani's Full Relationship Timeline

It's tough to think of another celebrity couple cheered on more by fans than Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton. Perhaps that's because their respective fan bases are so different, given Stefani' came to fame as lead singer of ska-punk-pop outfit No Doubt, while country singer Shelton is firmly rooted in the Nashville singer-songwriter tradition. Another reason could be because their fans have become so invested in the relationship as it unfolded in public, every step of their romance breathlessly chronicled by the media.

Then there's the fact that their relationship emerged like a phoenix from the wreckage of their personal lives, after their respective marriages came to painfully public ends. Add it all up, and who wouldn't root for these two to get together? When these two stars finally made things official and tied the knot, it seemed somehow predestined, as if they'd always been meant for each other. 

As inevitable as it may all now appear in hindsight, initial reports of their romance certainly took their fans by surprise, given the two stars' starkly different public personas and musical histories. That's why it's so interesting to look back at how their relationship started, how it evolved and how they eventually came to become spouses. With that in mind, read on for a rundown of Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani's full relationship timeline.

While viewers of "The Voice" watched the coaches banter and joke with each other, Blake Shelton's personal life was unravelling. In July 2015, ABC News reported that Shelton and his wife Miranda Lambert were divorcing after just four years of marriage. "This is not the future we envisioned," the two shared in a joint statement. 

The divorce was finalized within hours of the exes' announcement, reported Entertainment Tonight. As Shelton explained during an appearance on "The Bobby Bones Show" (via ET), because he and Lambert had no children and a prenuptial agreement, the process moved at a lightning pace. "It was like a nine or 10 day waiting period until it's over," he said.

The following month, Gwen Stefani and her husband, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, announced they were divorcing, followed by Us Weekly's shocking report that Rossdale had allegedly been cheating on his wife with their children's nanny. Speaking with Glamour in 2016, Stefani said she found the divorce to be both painful and humiliating. "I don't think you'll talk to one person who didn't make it in a marriage who's not gonna feel that way," she admitted. She also said that, despite all the media speculation, very few people really knew the actual circumstances underlying the divorce. "Nobody would believe it if I could really say what happened," she told Cosmopolitan. "I went through months and months of torture."

As Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani continued to support each other through the pain of their respective divorces, rumors began swirling that the friendship between the two co-stars on "The Voice" was evolving into something more. In October 2015, she was confronted with the rumour that they were dating during an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "Have you read the news?" she joked. Shelton likewise poured cold water on the rumors. "The stuff I read about myself blows my mind," Shelton tweeted.

Despite their denials, the following month the rumor mill went into overdrive when the two were spotted together at a swanky Hollywood Halloween party. As ET reported, an eyewitness claimed the two were careful not to display any PDA during the party — which wasn't necessarily the case as the evening progressed. When exiting, the two were spotted holding hands, but quickly released each other's grasp when they spotted paparazzi lurking nearby.

Meanwhile, E! News shared some of those paparazzi pics, with some featuring Shelton placing his hand on Stefani's waist, and one with his arm over her shoulder. In a subsequent interview with Carson Daly, reported TooFab, Stefani once again laughed off rumors that they were a couple. "We're just trying to have fun, you know?" she insisted.

Now that Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton had officially confirmed they were dating, it was time for the next milestone in any celebrity relationship: making their debut together as a couple on a red carpet. And for that, the couple chose an event as auspicious as they get: the 2016 edition of Vanity Fair's annual Oscar party. 

As USA Today reported, their outfits spoke volumes about their disparate backgrounds. Stefani wore a chic red dress from Yanina Couture, sheer and see-through but with satin flower petals appropriately positioned. Shelton, on the other hand, sported black jeans and cowboy boots, with a black blazer atop an untucked button-down shirt — also black.

Years later, Stefani discussed that particular gown during an appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show." "That was my first public date with Blake Shelton, actually," Stefani said, her declaration met with delighted shrieks from the studio audience. "That melts me when I see it," she said of seeing a photo of herself in the dress. "Because it's, like, such a memory for me. A good one."

Ever since bringing their romance out in the open, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani have made it a habit to be as open with the media as possible. That was particularly true when Shelton sat down with Billboard in 2016 for what turned out to be a highly candid interview. Discussing "If I'm Honest," the album he wrote and recorded in the months after his divorce from Miranda Lambert, Shelton acknowledged that writing and singing the songs was both painful and cathartic. 

"When you have a broken heart — at least, when I do — you got to get it out of your system," he said of recording the album. "You want people to sympathize with you. I was at rock bottom, in the middle of hell."

Coming together with Stefani, at such a critical moment in both their lives, proved to be a powerful antidote for the anguish he was experiencing. "Gwen saved my life," Shelton declared, describing how their relationship evolved from two damaged people helping each other through a terrible time to something far more. "It went from checking in on each other once a week through email ... to 'Hey here's my phone number if you ever want to text.' 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," Shelton admitted.

When the world shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton found themselves in a situation that they had never experienced before. With all their showbiz responsibilities suddenly paused, the couple had the unique opportunity to focus on themselves, with no outside distractions. As they quarantined together at Shelton's Oklahoma ranch, they grew even closer than they'd already become.

Of course, it wasn't just the two lovebirds shacked up on Shelton's ranch. As the singer explained during a virtual appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Stefani's kids were also along for the ride. "We are quarantined with a bunch of Stefanis," Shelton cracked. "I'm talking about a pile of 'em."

While many couples, forced into close contact for months on end, decided to break up during the pandemic, Shelton declared that the opposite was true in their case. "You wake up and look at the news and you're starting to realize that this quarantine is not working out too well for a lot of people who are finding out ... they don't like being around each other as much as they thought they did, which is terrible," Shelton remarked in an interview with SiriusXM's "The Storme Warren Show." "She and I have experienced the opposite, you know, and we've been having a blast."

In December 2020, Us Weekly reported that Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani were heading to the altar, with sources indicating the wedding would take place sometime in 2021. According to one source, Shelton had some big plans for the ceremony and had been laying the foundation — literally, as it turned out. "Blake built a chapel on the grounds of his Oklahoma ranch. He did it himself with help," said the source. "It's really a tribute to their love. They are going to get married in the chapel, most likely early next year."

Sure enough, on July 1, Page Six reported that the couple had filed for a marriage licence in Oklahoma. A few days later, Page Six reported that the two had wed in an intimate ceremony held in the chapel that Shelton had built on his ranch, just outside Tishomingo, Oklahoma. They subsequently took to Instagram to share photos from the wedding. "July 3rd 2021 dreams do come true !!!" wrote Stefani in the caption, adding, "@blakeshelton i love you."