Gwen Stefani Says One of Her Hit Songs Predicted Her Divorce Nearly a Decade Before It Happened

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published April 9, 2024

Like most songwriters, feelings are processed through writing music and lyrics—consciously or subconsciously. Apparently the latter was true for Gwen Stefani, who told Nylon in a new interview that her 2006 hit song “The Sweet Escape” foreshadowed her divorce from Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale nearly 10 years before it actually happened.

“It makes me cry,” Stefani said of the song. “I listen to the lyrics of that song, and it’s like, ‘Whoa!’ There was so much loaded fucking stuff in that song that was going on in my private life that it’s just crazy. It’s foreshadowing the future.”

Stefani married Rossdale four years prior to the release of “The Sweet Escape” in 2006; they’d go on to become parents to three sons, Kingston, Zuma, and Apollo. “The Sweet Escape” is about a couple going through a tough patch in their relationship—subconsciously, apparently, about her own marriage. Stefani was under enormous stress at the time and had just given birth to their first child when Interscope Records president Jimmy Iovine called and asked her to get into the studio with Akon, who produced the track.

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“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Stefani said. “‘The baby’s nine weeks old!’...[But] Jimmy’s always right.”

“The Sweet Escape” was on Billboard’s Top 10 for 15 weeks, peaking at No. 1. (According to Bustle, in a little twist of irony, Akon’s song “Don’t Matter” blocked it from reaching the top spot.)

Stefani shared that the song’s catchiest hook came in at the last minute: “We’re sitting there, it’s done, and Akon goes ‘Wait, I got one other idea,’” she said. “He walks in the booth like ‘Woo-hoo!’” (You know you can hear it in your head.)

Stefani and Rossdale eventually called it quits in 2015, 13 years after marrying in 2002. The next year, she told The New York Times that she wasn’t going to reveal details of the split, but “if I could, I would just tell you everything, and you would just be in shock,” she said. “It’s a really good, juicy story.”

Stefani eventually remarried country singer Blake Shelton after the two met while serving as judges on The Voice. She’ll hit the stage this month at Coachella, where she and her band, No Doubt, will take the stage together for the first time since 2015.

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.