Almost one year ago exactly, Gwen Stefani’s fans became very concerned that Gwen had gone full MAGA. She released a poorly-received album which seemed shockingly vapid and churchy, and she seemingly went all-in with the evangelical Christians, even becoming a spokesperson for a “prayer app.” In retrospect, I think Stefani simply became “born-again,” and here in America, we associate that kind of religious fervor with Republicans and political/moral hypocrisy. Meaning, it’s not that she went “full MAGA,” it’s that she was surrounding herself with those people in the name of religion. Still, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, etc. Anyway, Gwen recently had a conversation on the Hallow app about her Christianity, praying for a third child and feeling more religious since she married Blake Shelton. Some highlights:
Gwen on meeting Blake: During a conversation with Jeff Cavins on the prayer and meditation app Hallow, the 56-year-old singer spoke about feeling like she had never “experienced active love” before meeting Blake Shelton, a feeling Cavins also referred to as “Christ’s love.” “I also experienced active love, I think, for the first time when I met my husband because I had never really received active love. And I don’t think I knew how to even receive it. Like, it was just like I would be so uncomfortable when someone was sacrificing or actively trying to love me through their actions by maybe sacrificing something.”
On her music & her voice: “I always thought it would be very arrogant to say, ‘Oh, this is my gift. This is what I’m talented at. This is what I’m good at. But then I remember at a certain point in the last 10 years going, ‘No. God made me to do this. And if I don’t do it and share it, that’s a sin. I have to keep doing it.’ Even if it’s not through being in a church and talking about it, but just through sharing my story through a song — even if it’s a silly song, it says bananas in it, and it makes people happy when they go to college — whatever it is, that’s what I was made for, I guess.” Stefani added that she had to learn to accept that “God chose me to do that.”
Getting pregnant at 43 with son Apollo: “I really wanted to have another baby. I really did. I couldn’t and I was old and started talking about all these things…it was waking me up.” Part of it was because her oldest son, Kingston, 8, said he “really wanted [her] to have a baby,” and Gwen believed she was “too old” to have one. “He was like, ‘Please God, let my mommy have a baby. I just remember thinking, look at my little boy. He’s praying for me!” she recalled. She said he would pray for her to have one every night despite never being told to do so. “I never taught him that, really. I think it was four weeks later and I was pregnant with Apollo, who I had at 44 years old, naturally, totally a full-on gift. That was the first miracle.”
From what I know about Gwen’s life and family, I’m pretty sure she was raised Catholic. Possibly a “cafeteria Catholic,” picking and choosing what she needed from the church. But she used to be much more…secular, I guess is the word I’d use. Like, we knew that she went to church but she didn’t really talk about it and she openly had liberal/Democratic views. It feels like she’s just morphed into what she thinks she needs to be as Blake Shelton’s wife. What’s weird about that is I’m pretty sure Blake isn’t super-religious?? Like, yeah, he’s a country singer, but he’s not like THIS whatsoever? It’s so weird. Oh well, I guess this is who she is now.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.
