Some users attributed Stefani’s apparent heel-turn to her relationship with Shelton.
“Gwen Stefani seems like one of those girls who just completely absorbs and becomes whatever man she’s with,” one user wrote. “Eventually they’ll divorce and she’ll have a ballad about how she lost who she was for him.”
In 2016, Shelton disclosed that he’d be voting for Donald Trump, but added, “I probably wish there was another option, but there’s not.” When his support, however halfhearted, was noted in media coverage, he clarified on Twitter: “Hey before this gets going like it always does… I haven’t enforced ANYBODY for president. And I not going to. I don’t do that shit.”
He probably meant to say “endorsed.”
In 2017, after raising eyebrows by posting a photo of himself with Paul Ryan at Ole Red, a restaurant Shelton owns, the country musician said he “doesn’t do politics.”
In the past, Stefani performed at political fundraisers for Democratic then-candidate Barack Obama, and was invited to his final 2016 state dinner as a guest (Shelton came as her plus-one). She’s been embraced for music’s messages empowering women and LGBTQ+ communities. In recent years, however, she’s danced around naming her political views outright.
In 2021, in a cover story for Paper magazine, Stefani was asked whether “she’s a Republican now.”
“I can see how people would be curious, but I think it’s pretty obvious who I am,” she said. “I’ve been around forever.” She pointed out that she had a song “on the Obama playlist,” but declined to state a political affiliation.
“The whole point of voting, is you have this personal space to feel how you feel,” she said. “I use my platform to share my life story and to engage with people and to exchange whatever gift I was giving. I’m not a political science major. I am not that person. Everyone knows that. So why would I even talk about it?”
Shelton is Stefani’s second husband: She and ex-husband Gavin Rossdale share three sons, and divorced after nearly 13 years of marriage. The relationship between the two seems to remain tense: In 2023, the Bush frontman said that he and Stefani “don’t co-parent” their sons, they “just parent.” Previous reporting claimed that the couple’s mediation during the split turned contentious over issues of religion and what role it would take in their children’s lives, and Stefani actually delayed her wedding to Shelton until her first marriage was officially annulled by the Vatican.
Shelton and Stefani tied the knot in 2021 in a ceremony on their ranch in Oklahoma, officiated by Carson Daly.
Representatives for Stefani did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair‘s request for comment.
