Gwen Stefani Replacing Adam Levine On ‘The Voice’: How Blake Shelton Feels About The Switch

NBC

His love is back on ‘The Voice’, but his BFF is leaving. This is how Blake Shelton really feels about Gwen Stefani coming back, and Adam Levine resigning as coaches, we’ve learned exclusively.

Gwen Stefani is replacing Adam Levine on season 17 on The Voice, and that’s bittersweet for Blake Shelton. On one hand, he gets to work with his girlfriend of four years on the set where they met and fell in love. On the other hand, he’s losing his dear friend whom he’s worked and goofed around with since the first season, eight years ago! Blake feels conflicted about this new development, a source close to the country music star tells HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. But he’s excited about what’s to come.

“Blake is friends with Adam and that will not change. He’ll miss the banter with Adam, but Blake is going to love working with Gwen again,” the source dished. “Blake is looking forward to being tested by Gwen, because that’s going to add a real fun element to the show.” We’ll miss that witty banter between Blake and Adam so much, but it was tons of fun when Gwen was a coach on The Voice on seasons 7, 9, and 12. Blake and Gwen openly flirted on the latter two seasons after both experiencing devastating divorces. Four years later, they’re still very much in love, and we know that’s going to bleed over into their banter on the show again.

The Voice execs are all on board for Gwen coming back too, the source revealed. “It was a complete no brainer to bring her back because the show always wants to play off Blake in any way that they can, and Gwen was the clear and best choice,” they said. Adam released a statement about about his decision to leave the show after the news broke, stating that everything was fine; he just decided that it was time to move on after 16 seasons.

HollywoodLife reached out to Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani’s reps, and The Voice for comment on this story.