Gwen Stefani's inner turmoil is sometimes reflected in her songwriting before she's even aware of it. In an interview with Nylon , the singer revealed that her 2006 hit "The Sweet Escape" foreshadowed her divorce nearly a decade ago.
In 2002, Stefani married Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale and they have three sons: Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10. She wrote "Sweet Escape," about a couple going through a rough patch in their relationship, but it took her a while to realize how important those words were to her.
"It made me cry," she said. "I listen to the lyrics to that song and I'm like, 'Wow!' There's so much fucking stuff in that song that's going on in my personal life, it's crazy. It's a harbinger of the future."
Stephanie was also under pressure at the time. She had just given birth to her first child when Interscope Records president Jimmy Iovine called and invited her into the studio with Sweet Escape producer Akon. "I was like, 'What are you talking about?'" she said. "The baby's nine weeks old!" ... [But] Jimmy was always right. "
The two hit it off and immediately created one of the biggest hits of their careers. "Sweet Escape" stayed in the Billboard top ten for 15 weeks, peaking at number two. (Ironically, Akon's solo song "Don't Matter" prevented it from reaching the top spot.)
Stephanie recalls that the song's catchiest melody came at the last minute. "We were sitting there and it was done, and then Akon said, 'Wait a minute, I have another idea.'" He walked into the booth and was like: ' Woo ! '"she says.
Stephanie and Rossdale finally divorced in 2015 after 12 years of marriage. A year later, she told The New York Times that she would not reveal the details of their breakup. "If I could, I would tell you everything and you would just be shocked," she said. "It's a really wonderful and interesting story."
While Stephanie still holds the story close to her heart, she has moved on. She met her current husband, country singer Blake Shelton, in 2014 while the two were co-judges on The Voice .
