Gavin Rossdale Says He Wishes He Had “More of a Connection” With Ex-Wife Gwen Stefani

Gavin Rossdale is opening up about some of his post-divorce regrets nearly 10 years after his split from singer Gwen Stefani.

On Wednesday, March 21, while appearing on the latest episode of the Amy and T.J. podcast, the British musician admitted that sometimes he feels "a loss" when looking at the former couple's three children.

"The biggest thing would be when you see the kids that sometimes there’s a loss,” Rossdale explained. “It’d be nice if there was sort of more of a connection with the person who made them with me.”

The Bush frontman and former No Doubt singer tied the knot in September 2002 and share three sons together—Kingston, Zuma, and Apollo. In 2015, Stefani filed for divorce from Rossdale after 13 years of marriage.

"While the two of us have come to the mutual decision that we will no longer be partners in marriage, we remain partners in parenthood and are committed to jointly raising our sons in a happy and healthy environment," the pair said in a joint statement issued to Us Weekly at the time. "To that end, we respectfully request privacy from the media during this time."

In the same Amy and T.J. episode, Rossdale revealed that "the overriding thing” he feels since his divorce is how he feels “bad” for his children.

"It can be quite debilitating for kids,” Rossdale said, adding that his parents were both married three separate times so, for him, it "wasn't fun" to come from a "broken home."

“The overriding thing is you don’t want to let your kids down," he continued.

He also noted that he never thought" he would get divorced, and while he doesn't "live in regret" he does wish that he and Stefani "could have figured out a way not to have that" be part of their children's lives.

In a 2016 interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Stefani described the lead-up to her divorce as “months of torture," explaining that she felt her former husband had been hiding things from her. (It was reported that Rossdale had an alleged affair with the couple's former nanny.)

"It was the beginning of hell," the singer said at the time. "Like six, seven, eight months of torture, trying to figure out this big secret."

During his recent podcast interview, Rossdale admitted that his split from Stefani was a “very contentious, hugely emotional, flared-up situation,” but added that he makes it a point not to speak negatively about his ex.

"Less said, soonest mended, and I said nothing,” Rossdale said. “It’s not my place to say anything. I’m handcuffed because I would never want to overly say anything negative about their mom. That’s just not right.”