Gwen Stefani got extremely candid in a new interview, where she reflected on becoming a mom for the first time and balancing that with her career.
The Voice judge, who just confirmed her new relationship with Blake Shelton, shares sons Kingston, 9, Zuma, 7, and Apollo, 20 months, with her ex-husband Gavin Rossdale.
"In the beginning, I didn't want to think of myself as a mother,” she told InStyle. “I was like, 'Wait a minute! Ain't no hollaback girl is who I am!' I had to learn to accept it.”
Eventually, she said, she came to the realization that she can be both. “Being a mother and having a career — those are just different roles you play. You're still the same person you were before, but now you're more because you're a mother, too, with a lot to do."
She went on to admit she went through some tough times in 2012 while recording her No Doubt album Push and Shove, while Rossdale was on tour with Bush. Stefani called recording the album “super hard” and admitted she was “torn the whole time.”
Perhaps alluding to some friction in her marriage, she said “There were hard times before the baby, personally, that were just not good.” But being on The Voice and having her third child made her feel “refreshed” and back to a “positive place.”