Gavin Rossdale Calls Gwen Stefani Divorce 'Debilitating'
The Bush frontman and No Doubt singer were married from 2002 to 2015.
Gavin Rossdale is opening up about his divorce from Gwen Stefani. The Bush frontman, 58, generally has refrained from speaking about his 2015 split from the "Hollaback Girl" performer, with whom he shares three children, but spoke in the March 20 episode of the Amy & T.J. podcast with Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes about how his "clearest, simplest shame" was giving his children a "broken home."
"I never thought I'd ever get divorced. So there's a simple shame in my life," Rossdale told the former ABC news personalities. As the child of divorce himself, Rossdale said he never wanted to give his and Stefani's children – sons Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10 – a similar upbringing. (Rossdale is also dad to 35-year-old daughter Daisy Lowe from a previous relationship with Pearl Lowe.)
"I feel bad for my kids, that's it," he said. "I wish I could have found a way to not have that in their lives. It wasn't fun for me to come from a broken home... It can be quite debilitating for kids... the overriding things is you don't want to let your kids down."
Rossdale and Stefani wed in 2002 before splitting in 2015 amid rumors of Rossdale being unfaithful. Stefani would go on to marry country singer Blake Shelton in 2021 after they met on The Voice. Avoiding naming his ex, Rossdale continued, "The biggest thing would be when you see the kids that sometimes there's a loss. It'd be nice if there was more of a connection with the person who made them with me." Seemingly referencing Stefani and Shelton, he added, "I go to a lot of events where there's 'the other team,' so to speak and I just feel really proud of myself in my consistency as a father. I know in my heart that I'm super consistent."
Despite the whole split being a "very contentious, hugely emotional, flared-up situation," Rossdale said he does his best not to talk about Stefani. "Less said, soonest mended and I said nothing," he said. "I'm handcuffed because I would never want to overly say anything negative about their mom. That's just not right." Looking back, Rossdale said he can even have peace when it comes to what happened between them, "I think that there's no accidents in life so you are where you're meant to be. So I don't live in regret," he said. "Life just unfolds how it should."