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It is Courtlyn. They dated from maybe late 2021 to 2023. She attended some of the kids’ games with him, but he never posted about their relationship on social media like he does the current one.

She also posted a song she made on TikTok not long after their breakup in 2023 and commented this (with the hashtag “narcissistic relationship”)

“Imagine being so in love with someone and the entirety of your relationship they were on a dating site - and that’s not even the half of it.”

Which GR ex are we talking about? He’s had a string of them since Gwen and Sophia dumped his ass. I guess he gets rid of them before they can dump him now. The latest one’s days must be numbered since he referred to their relationship as “challenging” recently.

I just for the life of me don’t understand how anyone puts up with him much less thinks he’s a “catch”. I guess he has just enough money left and connection to fame/Gwen to make them take a chance on him. Oh well. Gold diggers get what they deserve.

I made the assumption it was the courtlynn one, but it was based on very little.

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Regardless of whether GR has a favorite child, he will absolutely continue to keep contact and use all three as long as they serve him. I don’t see any chance of him decreasing contact with the younger two. In addition to his narcissistic tendencies being fed through their successes and him being able to use them as a prop to bolster his public image, he would never give Gwen that satisfaction.

I think he enjoys having that lingering connection to her that still allows him to impact her life and have some control in some way. Plus, the competitiveness inside of him likely won’t let him cede full influence of the other boys to Gwen & Blake so easily. Look at how he had Zuma play on stage at a Bush concert literally just a few weeks after Zuma debuted at Ole Red, and finagled a People magazine exclusive about it. He won’t give up the “I’m a great dad” talking point any time soon because he doesn’t have much else.

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It has crossed my mind a couple of times lately that now that King has been living with GR for almost a year that we might see a lessening of contact between GR and the younger boys. Maybe he will be happy with having won over Kingston and go back to not seeing the other boys as much. He has made it clear that he hates Zuma’s choice to play country music and I have always felt like he has never been GR’s favorite. Zuma probably feels that too and since he will be old enough this summer to have a choice in where he wants to live(at least old enough in Texas not sure about California) that he may choose to spend his time with the parents who accept him as he is. If King nor Zuma is there at GR’s then GR would have a harder time taking care of a 12 year old and have to spend more one on one time with Apollo who we’ve clearly seen is more attached to Blake. The younger boys also seem to love spending their time in Okla and I’ve been seeing rumors Zuma has a girlfriend there. Honestly if that happens it would likely take a lot of stress off both sides of the Family. I was just wondering if anyone else has been thinking about this.

It seems like Kingston was able to decide where he wanted to live after turning 18, so I would assume it would be the same for Zuma and Apollo. I don't know that I believe there will be a lessening of contact, because I also think that Kingston is probably going to venture out and be at Gavin's place less now that he has graduated, and that might mean that the younger two boys will become Gavin's main way to find validation for himself and find ways to needle Gwen. But I don't expect him to be able to wield the same influence over the two younger boys because as you said, they appear to be much more entrenched in the lifestyle they have with Gwen and Blake.

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I’m not blaming everything on Miranda because Blake was a grown man with free will, but I think a lot of his “bad” behavior when he was with her was because they were both drinking heavily, and she encouraged the “badass” image and behavior in both of them. He wanted to please her, fit in with the crowd he was hanging with, and get more attention that would help him stand out in his career. We are all influenced by our environment and circumstances. It’s interesting to go through interviews of Blake chronologically from 2001-2010. He was way more polite, earnest and serious in the earlier interviews 2001-2004 ish.

Anyway Blake’s circumstances and environment is very different now. I agree that his basic personality is still the same, but he’s matured greatly. He has balance in his life now and he���s not just serving his career as well.

I think the place they were in their lives and careers during their relationship is key to keep in mind too. Still young and coming into what would be the peaks of their careers, trying to figure out what would work and how to keep that going. I don't think his relationship with her and the kind of life they lived encouraged truly settling down or maturing. They built up their brand with those partying and fun-loving personas they portrayed to the public, and they just never grew out of that together. I don't know who had the bigger influence on the other, but he definitely seemed to stabilize quicker than her after the divorce, whether that be due to being older or finding Gwen or just in general being more ready to do so. 

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I was so skeptical of G & B in the beginning. I thought G was attracted to bad boys who cheated and would never find the healthy relationship she deserved. I didn’t know a lot about Blake, but what the tabs/ML’s PR were spinning didn’t look favorable on him. It seemed his infectious humor and cute dimples had done a number on her. Unbeknownst to me, I happened on a love story for the ages. I can easily go back and forth about how much each had brought to the relationship, but there’s no question of who surprised me the most in their transformation. Blake knew he’d struck gold with Gwen and suddenly he lived and breathed in the best of himself. He has taken on his stepfather role so seriously my heart bursts every time I see him with the boys. I think underneath it all, this is truly who Blake is. Whatever happened in the past, that was something he’s learned from and deeply regrets. This is real life, no one is going to make good decisions 💯 of the time. Anyway, thanks for the deep discussions on here. I know it takes time and energy on your part, but it’s fun to talk about this “miracle” couple.

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I love Blake but yes, some of his social media posts were problematic. Back when The Voice premiered, I worked for a really large US company. We had the idea to work with Blake on a PR campaign for a brand launch. The company was excited and I was beyond thrilled that I would get the chance to work with him. And then he tweeted something that the company could not support. We ended up cancelling the project with him and working with another celebrity that I had worked with on a previous campaign. She was, and still is great to work with but she is not Blake. Sigh.

I can see that happening, and though it may have kept him from getting certain PR deals, it was probably a decent trade-off for him then. For a long time that outlandish persona worked for him in other ways - the majority of his fans loved it, it got attention and laughs, and he built his popularity with how blunt and unfiltered he was. And while he had to adjust to the bigger spotlight when he got The Voice, I think he resisted trying to change too much.

Him toning things down over the past 10 years might have made him more PR-friendly, but I think he has done it not even because of what people think or say about him as much as it is because he doesn't want it to affect Gwen or the boys. He talked about having to watch what he does and says because he realized he has those kids watching him too. I think that changed him more than anything. If it makes him more appealing to companies wanting to partner with him, extra bonus.

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Just my personal opinion but I think one of the things Miranda didn’t like the most was his insistence that they live in Oklahoma. She wanted to live in Nashville and live n a big house like other country stars and he wanted to live in Okla in a glorified metal bldg. He never built a “mansion” for her but he did for Gwen. I think this still makes her mad to this day. Even though she probably would still not want to spend so much time in Okla like Gwen does even if he had.

Yes, I think she has made it clear in a few different songs/lyrics that she resented having to live in small town Oklahoma and felt stifled there. She did know from the beginning though that it was going to be part of the deal, and she chose to follow him and move there when they were still just dating. Maybe she thought he'd relent or something later, I don't know. They did own property in Nashville too but he was never trying to stay there very much.

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I completely agree that Blake is not a rude or mean person. I always thought he and Miranda were a terrible couple and seemed to bring out the worst in each other. I never meant to say he wasn’t basically good man. All I meant to point out was that it seems some of his newer fans who, like Gwen, didn’t even know who he was before Shefani, either because they are too young or were never in to country music, seem to think he was always a saint and Miranda was the Devil. She is and always has been the devil, but he has not always been a Saint. I agree though that since Gwen came into his life he comes pretty close.

It gives me whiplash to go back and see some of the stuff he tweeted or said pre-Gwen, because it is truly like a different person. I think that some of the behavior back then is used as ammo by her fans to back their claims about him and whose fault the divorce was (and excuse or deny anything she did wrong), but ultimately people who are fans of him don't think that defined him or determined what kind of person he was at heart. But I agree with you that he was not perfect and some of that behavior probably rightfully rankled Miranda at the time, loath as we might be to admit it.

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Thank you for understanding exactly what I meant - that ML does not seem like a nice person towards other people, while Blake seems like he is very nice towards others, never mean like she was towards even Blake just from the few interviews we have seen of them together and from the way he described her in his interviews, even though they apparently thought it was normal to take jabs at each other - so weird to me. It also hurts me to see the one where she is talking about how she wanted the marquee to say her name in big letters and then his name really small, and he just has this weird look on his face, like G would never put him down like that. Which is why it's hard for me to understand how he could bear to be with her, but also they were never together that much, so maybe that helped to prolong the relationship. Blake is STILL very immature...just look at his behavior on this last tour...still a little embarrassing and cringe worthy at times, but never rude or mean towards anyone, except when he is making fun of Trace. I don't want to get too graphic, but some of the stuff he said to Trace during the early stops, was a little R-rated. My first thought was he was missing Gwen, and he just couldn't control what he was saying.

I think he has the same sense of humor which includes those more raunchy jokes, but he has learned how and when to express that and how to rein it in. I think it was Niall who said he was on a group chat with Blake where he would get very NSFW with the things he'd say. So I don't think he has changed so much in that regard as he at least knows when it's appropriate to keep it to himself.

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If you have followed Blake a long time you know that he did some embarrassing things earlier too. If you’ve ever seen Lust Lessons by Blake Shelton on Twitter, it doesn’t get much more embarrassing than those. His Mother actually commented in one of them and told him to just Shut Up. And I personally saw him and Miranda on stage at a festival together when he was drunk and commented on her huge Tits and then grabbed her and stuck his head in between them. She ran off the stage in tears. He has grown up so much and is really not the same person now. I can’t imagine him doing this to Gwen. She really did save his life.

I think the last anon meant to be referencing the stories about Miranda just not being a nice person, whereas I believe even in his most immature and inappropriate days, Blake has always been spoken of as someone who is kind and considerate to others. I cannot imagine him being rude to fans or service workers, but if stories we've heard are true, he was there at times to witness Miranda doing as such. So people wonder how he excused that when it's not something he himself seemed to have in his character. 

But yes, I am sure he did embarrass her at times as well - they both referenced her trying to tone down his joking and tweeting habits, and I think he really needed to a lot of the time. Then again, they both played up those personas for the public and seemed to enjoy and benefit from having that be their perceived dynamic - he the loud, outlandish flirt and her the badass that could stand toe to toe with him and show him his match. I don't think all of it was based in complete reality, and I also really don't see what was so appealing about it to the fans who loved them as a couple. 

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Thanks for coming back!

Blake said something interesting in a recent interview with regards to authenticity (I think the question was about people from other genres doing country):

"We know when something is authentic or not. We can see through that."

My question is was he able to see that ML was not authentic, or did he see the through the facade and just didn't care that her authentic self was not a good person? Or are all his long-time friends so awful that she didn't seem that bad in comparison?

The reason I ask is because in so many interviews, starting in November 2015, Blake just kept saying things like:

"I wish everyone could meet Gwen Stefani, because you would just be a better person for it."

"She is just such a good person with a good heart."

"I've learned more from Gwen Stefani as a human being and how to grow as a human being than I have from anybody ever in my life. Anybody. She's everything you could hope a human being could be. That's what Gwen is."

After reading/listening to every Blake interview from 2001 until now on Nicole's site over the last few years, I don't think I ever heard him say that about ML, but also how awful is everyone else in life, that he found ML acceptable to be his wife? It's just weird because even from the little we hear about her from Blake's old interviews and some headlines here and there, for people like me who don't follow her, she just seems like an awful person. Why did Blake start a relationship with her and continue for 10 years? Did she pretend to be nice in the beginning or what? I don't get it. I mean, going back to his quote at the beginning of this ask, I feel like he actually DIDN'T see through it and then got stuck in it...

I think he probably felt she was authentic in a lot of ways, honestly. That was her whole deal - he described her this "take no bullshit" type of personality and would say how she felt about any given situation and wouldn't put on airs about things. I think he appreciated that in many ways, even if there was also a side to that which likely embarrassed him at times (such as the reported stories of her being rude or cold to fans). He seemed to tell that story about her throwing a drink on Chad Kroeger with pride, whereas there are other stories we heard about that he was probably not so proud of. And he probably often saw it as taking the bad with the good. 

I know some of her image was a persona, but he had a certain persona for the public as well, so I'm sure privately he also felt he knew the "real" her and saw redeeming qualities. Otherwise it would not have lasted for 10 years. 

When they met they were both still in their 20s, she was only 22/23 when they actually began a public relationship. I think they both had a lot of maturing to do when they met. By the time they went through the divorce and he met Gwen, I think he probably had realized how rare and valuable those qualities you quoted him talking about were, especially in a partner. He may not have even realized how much those were lacking before until he had the comparison in front of him.

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Hi . Happy to see you hopped on here briefly today. If you see this, I’m curious what you think Gwen’s next moves may be? She’s been pretty radio silent lately which isn’t unusual and not much scheduled that we know but Gwen can surprise out of nowhere? The boys may take an extended vacation with their father to the UK and elsewhere possibly before his tour dates resume in July. I’m thinking maybe graduation celebrations for King and maybe a celebration for Apollo moving into middle school? I’m curious if her next moves will be more new music or fashion maybe? Revive LAMB maybe for fashion weeks in 2025 and 2026? Are you leaning any particular way on G?

I really don't know what to predict for her right now besides the errant festival appearance or private show here and there. I wouldn't rule out something ND-related for the Tragic Kingdom 30th annivesary in the fall, but I would be surprised if it was anything substantial. She really has kept pretty consistently busy for years. Even when new music was nonexistent, she was still doing Vegas or The Voice and then launching the makeup line. Now the future seems kind of like a blank page. We'll see how she decides to fill it, but she may also just slow way down and not do too much for the rest of year.

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"Do you think B's team knew about BG in October 2015? ..."

Similar question with the previous anon, when do you think ML have known. After the divorce,There was a report in "Inside Edition" that ML had spies everywhere in results that Blake was not left alone. It makes me wonder did she keep tabs on Blake after the divorce.

She and Blake probably still had a lot more mutual friends and other similar people close to them at the time, so soon after their split, so it's possible she heard something or had an idea that the rumors in the press were likely true. She might not have been 100% sure if it was true or not though, or known the extent of the relationship.

It didn't occur to me until just now with this convo, but we are now 10 years past the last sighting of Blake and Miranda together during their marriage. They were seen at the end of May at a restuarant in OK, and then that was it. She seemed to hit the road in June and they were never spotted together again.

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Do you think B's team knew about BG in October 2015? Like when they were hanging out in the hotel in NY during that press run? Or was he able to keep it from them? Carson claims he didn't know until they announced it in November.

By October I think it's very possible. At that point they had been meeting up secretly for a while. I think employees/team members are also different from friends and costars like Carson, Adam etc. They probably have some of those kinds of people who work for them sign NDAs anyway to keep private info private, especially since they were going through media scrutiny with their divorces at the time already. Friends also wouldn't be as close to situations like car service and hotel pickups as team members who might help coordinate those things. Not to say that Blake would have confided directly in those people, but they could have possibly noticed and realized things going on but were not able to say anything about it due to the confidentiality expected of their role.

I do believe Adam and Carson when they say that they were shocked and didn't know very far in advance, but I also think that probably has a lot to do with Blake denying it to them. Adam said Blake was "lying" to everyone about it. Around September/October 2015 Life & Style and US had pretty convincing articles about how people on set of the show were noticing things going on between them. I think it's possible that Adam and Carson just didn't believe it was more then friendly bonding because they assumed Blake would tell them if it was.

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Thanks for your blog. I was reading some of your asks from over a year ago, and I was wondering if you think Blake is capable of repeating his past mistakes wrt K/ML in his current relationship with Gwen, meaning is it a fatal character flaw he is predisposed to that has not had an opportunity to resurface at that level because he and Gwen are so in love on such a deep level, or was it just a one-time thing that he will never do again because he caused so much pain to K, and he would never want to hurt Gwen? The reason I ask is because I always wonder what the catalyst was for Gwen to write Champagne and Roses and to record When Loving Gets Old, even though she didn't write it, since Blake recently said that she has a hard time recording songs where she can't find herself in the lyrics/story. We know many of the other songs from that era were clearly about the rat, but it seems When Loving Gets Old is more ambiguous (at least to me), especially since she didn't write it. I just feel like Gwen is very intuitive when it comes to people's energy and I wonder if she sometimes feels the potential for something like what I am referring to (either because of insecurities due to PTSD from the rat, or maybe knowing about what happened with K/ML), and suppresses/ignores it, like she did with the rat for 20 years, but then we will see her true feelings come out in song (Purple Irises, for example.) Hope I am not crossing a line with this question. I am still making my way through your blog, so I apologize if this has already been addressed. I used your search bar to see if you had already analyzed When Loving Gets Old, but no results showed up. Here are a couple examples of what I am talking about, with your response to the first one in italics to differentiate, and there was no response to the second one. Thanks for your time:

Anonymous asked:

I’m aware that it appears that most people who participate in the conversations on the Shefani blogs believe that cheating is not in Blake’s DNA but even Blake has never denied cheating on Kaynette with Miranda. She was, in fact, very upset over it. I personally feel like the fact that he hurt Kay who didn’t deserve it because of ML is the reason he tried so hard to stay married to Miranda. He wanted to believe he had found true love with her or he would never have divorced Kay and he still feels guilty about it. You can verify this from interviews he gave (one on 60 min) if you’re going to deep dive into that time period.

I think whatever anyone chooses to believe about what actually happened, it’s pretty clear Blake felt very bad about the pain she experienced. Whether that guilt and regret contributed to his desire to make a mistake of a relationship work out, we’ll probably never know for sure, but it’s a plausible theory. 

Anonymous asked:

Even if it never crossed into a physical boundary before they divorced, there was still an emotional connection outside of his marriage that shouldn’t have been there. Sometimes that’s even more devastating to the spouse because you are developing a close bond through emotional intimacy with another person rather than just satisfying a physical urge. That’s one of the reasons Blake & Gwen got so close so fast. They were confiding in one another and developing an emotional intimacy and close bond.

As much as I deep dive and read about them and think I know about them, at the end of the day I don't actually know them or see the ins and outs of their day to day life and relationship. I think it seems from things he's said that Blake clearly married Kaynette out of a sense of obligation and guilt when he was nowhere near ready to make that commitment and also when he knew deep down that the relationship was not meant to be. I don't think there's anything to show that he's ever been anywhere near in the same headspace, life space, etc. in his marriage to Gwen. Seems like two totally different situations and he honestly seems like a very different person now. That's all judging from the outside looking in.

I don't think there's anything in the songs Champagne and Roses or When Loving Gets Old that point to insecurities or even "energy" she's getting about losing him or infidelity, they more just seem like asserting that a relationship is still good even when it's no longer new or not always a fairy tale. We did talk about C&R here a few months back. WLGO was sent to her and she recorded I think in 2020, so that's pretty far in the past now as to when she thought about putting it on an album, before they got engaged. I think those are very normal-sounding relationships in those songs. The first time I listened to WLGO I even thought it was sweet. I have been married a long time so I can relate to it.

Purple Irises is probably a more relevant example as to where Gwen's insecurities may lie when it comes to that, but outside of what she says in interviews, it's up to our best assumptions to judge how much of her feelings are because of being traumatized by Gavin and if any of it would be because of any kind of "energy" she felt elsewhere. She herself has said that she knew her feelings she wrote about in Purple Irises were just in her head. To me, it seems like the vast majority of it is based on what she went through in the past. Nothing else she has written or said about Blake indicates that he's done something to make her feel that way. If anyone thought differently it would be up for discussion but I can't think of anything she's said or written that would imply that.

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The raw numbers without context certainly aren’t great but the music business has changed a lot even over the past 4 years and on top of that Blake isn’t as popular as he once was. Sales were about what I was expecting. The bigger issue is neither he nor Gwen’s new music stream well. Texas has without question been a hit for Blake and still streaming numbers are pretty low comparatively. All things considered, I’d still say both of their albums were a success for this point in their careers.

Their streaming numbers definitely contribute to them not charting as well.

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I’d asked this in another blog but no one had a response. I feel like Years w/John Anderson or Heaven Sweet Home w/Craig Morgan could be considered for a Grammy. But do songs that aren’t released as singles generally get Grammy noms? Don’t think either of those are necessarily radio hits.

Songs that were not released as a single can be eligible to be nominated for a Grammy, but I'm not sure how strong the chances are unless it's a song that has a lot of muscle behind it for the campaigning and support building that seems to generally help garner nominations. It would have to really stand out and be pushed by TPTB to get it there. I suggested previously that HSH could perhaps be released to Christian radio and in that case maybe it would have a better shot to be nominated in one of those religious categories, like Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance or Song.