The sweetest stepdad! Nearly eight months after marrying Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton is gushing about his relationship with her three sons.
The country singer, 45, said at the Country Radio Seminar on Monday, February 28, that while he “didn’t know what [he] was signing up for” when he began dating the No Doubt frontwoman, 52, in 2015, he was “all about signing up for it.”
The Oklahoma native explained that he followed his father Richard Shelton‘s example as the car salesman raised Blake’s late half-brother.
“He took Richie on and raised him from the time he was 1 … and my brother never thought of my dad as anything other than his dad,” the “Austin” singer said of his older sibling, who died in 1990 at age 24. “The example that my dad set for me was that [child] was not even a consideration [in a relationship]. You’ve got three boys? Awesome! My dad did it. My dad raised me. I could do this. … And every day I’ve fallen in love with the boys as much as I do with Gwen.”
Stefani shares Kingston, 15, Zuma, 13, and Apollo, 8, with her ex-husband, Gavin Rossdale, and the eldest two boys were confused the first time they visited Blake’s Oklahoma ranch.
“The two of them were like, ‘Well, what do we do now?’” the songwriter recalled. “I go, ‘Go out that door and don’t come back till you’re too tired to go any further.’ Well, they can’t even imagine just going down to the creek with a net or turning over rocks or getting on a buggy and driving around.”
Now, the little ones treat the 1,300-acre property “like Disneyland,” the former Clash of the Choirs judge joked, adding, “When it comes to burning things, starting fires and throwing hatchets, you better get out of the way!”
The “God’s Country” singer officially became their stepdad when he wed Stefani in July 2021 in Oklahoma. Prior to their nuptials, he spoke about treating his fatherhood role with intention.
“I don’t know if it’s as hard or harder or not as hard as being an actual, biological parent,” Blake explained during a February 2021 KFROG interview. “I have a stepfather in my life who’s one of my heroes. I love my stepfather and I look up to him and he’s like a father to me, so I have a good inspiration in my life for how to do this and the kind of stepdad I want to be. And I take it very serious. I don’t take it so serious that I’m not enjoying this time because I really am, especially now that we’re five years into this thing.”
