Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani recently announced that they're engaged after five years of dating. There's no telling why the pair waited so long to get married (though rumors abounded that Gwen hoped to have her 12-year-long marriage to Gavin Rossdale annulled by the Catholic Church), but no matter: They're doing it now! And while a lot of people have shared their thoughts on this particular union, one woman has stayed conspicuously quiet: Blake's ex-wife, Miranda Lambert.
To be fair, Gwen's ex-husband hasn't said much, either. But our culture being what it is, people have been clamoring to see what, if anything, Miranda will say about the fact that the man she divorced half a decade ago is getting married again.
While Miranda may or may not really care (I'm leaning toward the latter, especially since she's been married to Brendan McLoughlin since 2019), her fans sure do. Since everyone can, they've taken to the internet to share exactly how they feel about Blake and Gwen, and woo boy, some of it is entertaining.
First things first: Let's review Miranda and Blake's timeline. The pair met back in 2005, which is two years after I graduated high school. I'm a fully grown, almost 36-year-old woman now. I'm sharing this information not to make this about me, but to highlight just how long ago this relationship began, and how Miranda is likely very genuinely over it and is hoping she's not about to become Jennifer Aniston, forever cursed with commenting on whatever Brad Pitt does in his life, as if there's nothing else interesting about her at all.
Anyway! They met in 2005! Forever ago!
They performed "You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma" together, and people were wowed by the pair's immediate chemistry. The video is worth watching if you haven't yet.
Unfortunately, there was a problem: Blake was married to Kaynette Gern, his high school sweetheart. Interestingly, absolutely no one is tracking down Kaynette to ask her opinion of Blake and Gwen's upcoming marriage.
Blake later claimed the attraction between him and Miranda was immediate.
"I've never had that kind of experience with anybody. I was a married guy, you know? Looking back on that, I was falling in love with her, right there on stage."
He filed for divorce from Kaynette five months later.
Miranda and Blake dated for quite some time, and he proposed in 2010. They got married pretty quickly thereafter, and, honestly, I understand why some of their fans can't let go. They looked good together! They also said really sweet things, like when Miranda told People magazine, "Weddings are great and engagements are great and diamonds are especially great. But I'm just excited to be married because I want to tell Blake I really can love him the rest of my life and be happy and make him happy."
However, the pair also pretty quickly started indicating that there may be trouble in paradise. In 2013, Blake appeared proud of himself when he shared that he "lets" Miranda go through his phone anytime she wants to. "[I tell Miranda], 'I have nothing to hide from you.' That's always been our policy: 'Here's my phone. Go through it.' That's really the kind of trust we have. There are no secrets. [I'll say,] 'Go dig through my drawers or my computer if you feel like you need to.' And that's been a really good thing, because I don't want her to ever have any doubts."
Of course, one could argue that the fact that they even needed this arrangement was indicative of a less-than-sturdy foundation.
The pair filed for divorce in 2015. Fascinatingly, Gwen Stefani also filed for divorce from Gavin Rossdale in 2015. Gwen reportedly filed for divorce after finding out Gavin was cheating on her with the family's nanny. She later spoke about feeling embarrassed that her marriage didn't work out.
"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. The intention of being married is the vow, right? You want to put everything into it to make it a success."
She went on to add, "[Marriage] was the one thing I didn't want to fail at. People can say whatever they want to about me, and I don't get too affected. But I didn't want them to think I was a failure. There's nothing weird about how I felt."
Gavin and Gwen share three children together, and they have largely appeared to be successful co-parents.
Back to Miranda and Blake!
Their joint statement read: "This is not the future we envisioned, and it is with heavy hearts that we move forward separately. We are real people with real lives, with real family, friends, and colleagues. Therefore, we kindly ask for privacy and compassion concerning this very personal matter."
No one has ever explained exactly why the two divorced, which is part of the reason why fans are so obsessed with the idea that they might get back together.
In the years since their divorce, Miranda and Blake have not demonstrated a lot of warmth or affection toward one another — which makes the idea of them getting back together even more bizarre. It's absolutely fine if they hate each other's guts; being married for a few years doesn't mean you have to love each other forever. Notably, Miranda and her current husband didn't acknowledge Blake's performance at the 2019 CMAs.
An attendee told US Weekly, "Everyone stood up to clap for Blake at the end of his performance except Miranda Lambert and her husband. At the commercial break, they both left their seats."
Miranda and Brendan have been married since 2019. The two definitely got married quickly, but they might just be the kind of people who leap in headfirst no matter what. They genuinely seem pretty happy together, and Miranda loves being a stepmom:
"My stepson is amazing. I'm loving that whole phase, and I've raised a million dogs, so I feel like I've got that part of my womanly/motherly thing is full, so this is a whole new journey. It's great."
