Gwen Stefani refused to feel sorry for herself following her divorce, and now has her first #1 album
The singer opened up about her divorce from husband Gavin Rossdale in her cover story in the August issue of Harper's Bazaar and explained that her "dreams were shattered."
The couple, who have three sons together, were married for 13 years before splitting following cheating allegations between Rossdale and the children's nanny.
"It was the beginning of hell," Stefani explained. "Like six, seven, eight months of torture, trying to figure out this big secret."
As she was struggling, Stefani said she turned to praying and focused on her children. And she refused to feel sorry for herself.
"All I wanted my whole life was to have babies, be married, like what my parents have," she said. "Then I remember thinking,'There's gotta be a reason for this.' Of course you go through the 'Why me?' and feel sorry for yourself. But then I was like, 'No, this happened to me already and I made something good out of it.'"
"It was like being handed this gift of a friend who was going through the exact same thing at the exact same time," she said.
The two began dating and have been together since.
Stefani also channeled her energy and emotions into writing new songs and collaborating with artists to record a new album.
"I had spent a lot of years not being confident about my songwriting," she said. "But I know that's all I had left, and that was my gift. I had read somewhere if you don't have gratitude and confidence in what you've been given, you're nowhere."
She released "This is What the Truth Feels Like" in March 2016, and it became her first number one album, and her duet with Shelton for his recent album hit number one on the country charts.