Blake Shelton feigned resentment at his glam wife, Gwen Stefani, for her return to season 24 of The Voice after his exit from the show at the end of season 23. “I think I’d actually put out there to the press too, because everybody wants to know, like, why are you quitting? Why are you walking away from the show?” he said of his departure during a November 8 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“And it’s like, well, for the family, you know, for more family time,” he continued. “And then the very next announcement was Gwen’s coming back,” he hilariously observed. “So maybe she doesn’t want too much family time. I don’t know. Money talks.”
He also noted that the power couple does make independent decisions. “If it shows you anything, like, we’re completely not involved in each other’s decision making when it comes to our careers,” he explained. “She’s Gwen Stefani and that’s its own machine, you know what I’m saying? And so it’s like, ‘Oh wait, oh you’re going back? Because I just quit. So I’ll catch you next spring.'”
The duo famously met on the set of the talent show in 2014, and married in a romantic ceremony in 2021. Their perfectly blended family includes her sons with ex Gavin Rossdale — Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 9.
During an October speech at Gwen’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony, the country icon recalled first meeting the No Doubt star, and his first impressions of her. “The first time that I ever met Gwen was in 2014,” he shared in the emotional speech. “She wasn’t like any other famous person that I had ever met before. She drove herself to work in a black minivan with car seats in it.”
Blake first announced his intention to leave The Voice after 12 years in an October 2022 social media statement. “This show has changed my life in every way for the better and it will always feel like home to me,” he wrote in part. “It’s been a hell of a ride over these 12 years of chair turns and I want to thank everyone at The Voice from NBC, every producer, the writers, musicians, crew and catering people, you are the best.”
He also noted the “lifelong bonds” he’d made with host Carson Daly and Gwen.