Gwen Stefani went through ‘months of torture’ during divorce from rocker Gavin Rossdale

American popstar Gwen Stefani, 53, became famous around the 1990s as the lead singer of No Doubt and then went on to have a successful solo career after parting ways with her bandmates in the early 2000s.

Stefani, was born on October 3, 1969, in Fullerton, California, and had an interest in fashion and music from an early life. Her mother taught her to sew but her brother Eric was the musical inspiration. Her older brother is also the co-founder of No Doubt - in which Stefani was the second vocalist but she became the lead singer when co-founder John Spence passed away.

It was during an event in 1995 involving No Doubt and Gavin Rossdale’s Bush that the couple met. They went on to date for many years before tying the knot in 2002.

Despite their busy careers, British rocker Rossdale and Stefani - who will be performing at Warwick Castle on June 23 - made their relationship work initially but soon, cracks started to form. They share three sons Apollo, Zuma, and Kingston, and after being married for 13 years - they filed for divorce in 2015 citing irreconcilable differences.

In a 2016 interview with Glamour, Stefani said: “The intention of being married is the vow, right? You want to put everything into it to make it a success. [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.”

According to Us Weekly, the cause of their divorce was Rossdale’s affairs. He was having a relationship with the family nanny - who cared for their sons. The popstar reportedly found texts and photos on an iPad.

“The iPad was linked to Gavin’s phone,” a family source told Us Weekly. “One of the other nannies discovered the exchange and told Gwen.”

In an interview with Cosmopolitan in 2016, The Voice coach said: "Nobody except for my parents, the people involved, and whoever they told [know the specifics about what happened with Gavin]. Nobody would believe it if I could really say what happened. I went through months and months of torture."

Rossdale reportedly had another affair long before they got married. On the Howard Stern show, rocker Courtney Love revealed that she was with him after Rossdale starting dating Stefani.

For Stefani, it was a mortifying time and years later, even Rossdale admitted in a Q&A with The Guardian that the divorce was the most embarassing moment of his life.

In the interview, he said the worst thing someone said to him was “You lied to me”, when he did. However, he tries to move on from the experience. He told The Guardian: “Life is just a series of chapters, and it’s essential to try not to bring older chapters into new chapters.”

The musicians formally parted ways and instead, focussed on their kids. However, they don’t agree on the parenting styles either.

Rossdale said: “I don’t think there’s much similarity in the way we bring them up, but I think that gives them an incredible perspective to then choose which pieces of those two lives they’d like to inherit and move on with and which part of themselves come out of the whole process.”

After their divorce, Stefani filed for an annulment from Rossdale and it was granted by the Catholic Church. She was dating American country singer Blake Shelton at the time and wanted to speed up her wedding to him.

A source told Vanity Fair: “It was a huge relief for Gwen because she wanted to get married by her priest and have the marriage recognized by the Catholic church.” She tied the knot with Shelton on July 3, 2021.