Gwen Stefani And Blake Shelton’s Relationship Might Be Staged

Even casual viewers of “The Voice” would know that coaches Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton are a couple. Well, they’re pretty public about it, which makes it surprising to learn that some people think their relationship might be staged.

According to Nicki Swift, it’s possible that it could all be a PR stunt. One of the reasons given by the publication is that both hinted that their relationship is good press.

“I think that NBC did that. Two divorced people at the same time,” Stefani once told Ryan Seacrest in November 2015. “I just want to tell the truth about what happened [in the divorce from Lambert] … I figure since everybody else is cashing in on my life, I might as well get some of that too,” Shelton told DJ Bobby Bones in 2016.

The publication also commented that the relationship is beneficial to both parties careerwise. Before they became a pair, Gwen Stefani’s once red-hot career significantly cooled down after her hit “Hollaback Girl.”

She tried to launch several singles after it, but they weren’t as commercially successful. At that time, Gwen needed a hit, and getting a boyfriend well liked by the public is one of the “necessary ingredients for success and reawakening the public's interest in her music.”

Meanwhile, the relationship might just be the image boost that Shelton needed, according to Nicki Swift. Blake and ex-wife Miranda Lambert were considered country music’s first couple, and their breakup might have negatively affected the former’s image.

“But having him romance a co-star reminds fans and the American public that he's a heartthrob — one whose charms a gorgeous, high-fashion, newly-minted divorcee could not resist,” the publication reported.

Another site, Hollywood Life, once wrote that even Lambert was reportedly shocked by Shelton and Stefani’s 2015 Christmas card, which was described as over-the-top cutesy. “Miranda caught wind of the card and is just embarrassed for them,” an unidentified source told the site.

“It’s just too much and too fast,” the source added. “She thinks it’s just a publicity stunt. Miranda feels like if they were confident about their relationship, then they wouldn’t feel the need to flaunt it so much!”

But are these observations enough to conclude that their relationship is just staged? Every relationship has different dynamics. What might seem to be too fast, too soon for others might be the perfect pace for Stefani and Shelton.

To be fair, most reports are pretty convinced that the couple is being real. For instance, fact-checking site Gossip Cop concludes back in 2018 that all those fake relationship rumors about Shelton and Stefani are simply untrue. After all, the couple already dated for almost four years now, which is certainly too long for a “fake relationship.”