So much better after breakup. Gwen Stefani explained in two separate interviews on Friday, March 18, why she’s so open about her heartbreaking split from Gavin Rossdale and how it inspired her new album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like.
Stefani opened up to Time about her unfiltered, candid recent interviews, detailing her divorce from the Bush frontman after 13 years of marriage. While Stefani hasn’t directly addressed his affair with their former nanny Mindy Mann to protect their sons, the singer has shared part of the journey from her perspective.
“I don’t feel like I have anything to be ashamed of,” the 46-year-old beauty told the mag. “I’ve done nothing wrong. I don’t feel like I have anything to protect about myself. But when you’re a mother, you have to have some boundaries.”
The star told LinkedIn in a separate Q&A that her latest solo album “represents picking myself up off the ground and [me] saying, ‘No! I have a gift. I have to have confidence.'”
She and Rossdale, 50, shocked everyone last summer when they announced their 13-year marriage was over. The couple — who share three sons, Kingston, 9, Zuma, 7, and Apollo, 2 — didn’t exactly part ways amicably. Us Weekly exclusively revealed that the Bush frontman had cheated on his wife for years with their former nanny Mindy Mann, who is now expecting a baby of her own with her boyfriend.
The exes now share joint custody of their kids. “One of my favorite songs I wrote on my record — I wrote because I only had four hours,” the No Doubt frontwoman told LinkedIn. “I had to be at a basketball game for my kid. I wrote two songs in four hours.”
Her youngest son, Apollo, made an adorable guest appearance on Stefani’s Twitter account on Thursday. “Everybody go to the iTunes,” her little tot told his mom’s fans in a video, pleading with them to buy This Is What the Truth Feels Like.
In an interview with the New York Times earlier this month, Stefani opened up about her split from Rossdale and sharing joint custody with her ex.
“It’s like, the most unjust, unbelievable system,” Stefani told the paper of splitting time 50/50 with the rocker. To recover from her split, Stefani found therapy in writing and creating music. She told herself at the time: “‘I have to make music out of this. That’s what God wants for me.’ . . . Being in that room and being creative, it was the only place that felt good — I was like, ‘I love the smell of this room.’”
This Is What the Truth Feels Like is out now.
