Blake Shelton has marriage on his mind.
In an exclusive interview with CMT’s Cody Alan, the “I Lived It” singer admitted that he often things about taking his relationship with longtime girlfriend Gwen Stefani to the next level by putting a ring on it.
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“I think about it. I don’t think it’s anytime soon or anything,” Shelton told Alan at the MGM Grand Arena ahead of the 53rd Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on Sunday. “The more time that goes by, I guess, the closer you’d be getting to that.”
Shelton’s confession comes on the heels of Stefani’s confession that she, too, thinks about marrying her country singing boyfriend, whom she has been dating since 2015 after meeting on the set of NBC’s The Voice.
Appearing on The Ellen Show just last week, host Ellen DeGeneres grilled the “Make Me Like You Singer” about her relationship with Shelton and the possibility of marriage.
“You know what? I love weddings, the kids love him,” Stefani told DeGeneres. “Everybody loves him. He’s lovable. I think about [marriage] all the time.”
While there are currently no wedding plans, there is plenty of love in the air between the two, who took on the ACM Awards Sunday night hand-in-hand.
Before the awards show got off to its start, Stefani and Shelton kicked off their “date night” with rehearsals and handholding, though they found themselves in an awkward situation when Shelton’s ex-wife, Miranda Lambert, won the award for Song of the Year at the start of the show. The winning song was Lambert’s “Tin Man,” which is about her divorce from Shelton after the two were married for four years.
The duo was able to brush the uncomfortable situation off, though, and enjoy the remainder of the show, which included Shelton taking the stage twice.
First singing his hit “I Live It,” he serenaded Stefani, as though they were the only two in the room. The camera even managed to catch Stefani singing along.
Next, Shelton took the stage to perform “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” with Toby Keith.
Shelton’s hit “I’ll Name the Dogs” was nominated for Single Record of the Year, but he went home empty-handed.
When the pair isn’t taking on awards shows, they’re spending time with their families, which they have seemingly seamlessly integrated over the years they’ve been together, with Stefani recently telling Marie Claire that Shelton’s sister often joins the group at the singer’s ranch in Oklahoma with her own children.
“It’s very tribal,” she said. “Blake has a sister, she comes with her kids. We cook and get muddy and dirty. There are ATVs. Being a mother of three boys, it’s kind of the perfect place. Everything is real now, whereas before, things didn’t seem so real.”
