Early life
Gwen Renee Stefani was born in the city of Fullerton, California on October 3, 1969, but grew up in nearby Anaheim with her father Dennis, mum Patti Flynn and siblings Jill, Eric and Todd. Long before making her mark on the pop charts, Gwen studied at California State University, but the star-to-be dropped out in 1987 to follow her dream career in music.
No Doubt
Following encouragement from her older brother Eric, Gwen began singing backing vocals for the group No Doubt, and soon became one of the group's lead singers. She became romantically involved with her bandmate Tony Kanal soon after, and when the two split up the band itself almost did too. Ironically, it was their break-up which provided the inspiration for one of their most successful singles, 'Don't Speak', which helped their album Tragic Kingdom (1995) to staggering international sales in excess of 14 million. The band remained together until 2004, when they went on hiatus.
Solo career
Just as No Doubt took a break in their work together, its members were also branching out to follow solo careers, and Gwen's debut release Love. Angel. Music. Baby. became an immediate hit. Her songs 'What You Waiting For', 'Rich Girl' and 'Hollaback Girl' were all chosen as singles and performed well on the Billboard Hot 100, with the latter becoming her first US number one single.
Another successful album, The Sweet Escape, followed in 2006. Her third solo studio album This Is What the Truth Feels Like was released ten years later in 2016. Alongside her singing career, Gwen made it big on TV as a coach on The Voice in seasons seven, nine, 12, 17, 19, 22 and 24. In 2018 she began her much celebrated Las Vegas residency, which due to COVID only came to an end in 2021 after several postponements of its last eight shows.
Personal life
Gwen married her partner of several years Gavin Rossdale in 2002, and the couple share three sons: Kingston, Zuma and Apollo. The pair announced they would be divorcing in August 2015, and in November that year Gwen announced she was in a relationship with her The Voice co-star Blake Shelton. Gwen and Blake married in 2021.
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