Gwen Stefani opens up about impact of ‘horrible family breakup’

The No Doubt frontwoman split from her husband in 2015, the same time the band went on hiatus

It’s been a busy year for Gwen Stefani, who not only reunited with No Doubt to perform at Coachella, but is set to release her seventh studio album. Yet on the topic of the beloved band’s reunion, and what took so long, the singer revealed that the reasons were personally devastating.

Gwen Stefani rocks a warmer blonde tone© NBC
Gwen Stefani for The Voice

She explained that the band broke up in 2015, around the same time that she and Gavin Rossdale split up, and that their divorce had a major impact on her career as a result.

“The No Doubt thing was so crazy,” she told NME of the band’s split. “It’s not like we made a decision to not do anything, or not hang out or talk. Everybody’s lives just happened.”

No Doubt band members (L-R) bassist Tony Kanal, singer Gwen Stefani, Tom Dumont and Adrian Young backstage in 1996© Tim Mosenfelder

She continued: “You know, the time we stopped [in 2015] was when I was going through my horrible family breakup – I don’t like to say the word ‘divorce’, because it’s just such a disgusting word. But my life just blew up, it really did.”

Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani attend "A Night To Benefit Raising Malawi & UNICEF"© Getty Images

She continued that when people ask why it took so long for No Doubt to reform, she was healing from the major changes in her life, as she navigated life separate from Gavin with their three sons.

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“But when you have a family, eight years goes by like that. To heal from what happened, I mean it’s still happening, I’m still trying to get through it.”

Photo shared by Gavin Rossdale on Instagram on June 2023 with his three sons with Gwen Stefani during their visit to London© Instagram

While Gwen was trying to heal, the band had been trying to reorganize for a gig, “to do something like Coachella,” but “it just wasn’t coming together.”

But ahead of the 2024 concert, it “all of a sudden just happened really fast.” Up until that point, the singer had barely spoken to her bandmates, and so walking into rehearsals on the first day had led to them all finally catching up.

Gwen and Gavin first married in 2002 and they share Kingston, Zuma and Apollo together. Both parties have confessed that their divorce had a huge impact on their lives and that of their sons.

“Everybody pretty much knows that at one point my life fell apart. It was terrible, and there’s so many people out there that have gone through the same thing. When that happened, I had to literally start over again. It was a reset of my life,” Gwen confessed to People.