Gwen Stefani has a long, extensive interview with LGBT publication Pride Source promoting her new album. She’s asked a lot of questions about her relationship with the gay community, and about being a woman in the male-dominated music industry. To be fair to Stefani, when she talks about her “gay friends” or about one of her sons potentially coming out, she’s asked specifically about that by the journalist, in those words. She’s not bringing it up out without context.
The quotes from Stefani which are getting the most press were when she said that she would be “blessed” if one of her sons came out. Again, she was asked what she would do in this instance. Writer Chris Azzopardi knows how to get a good quote. Stefani was extremely chatty too; she said several times that she’s horrible at keeping secrets. She didn’t exactly dish the dirt on her relationship ending, she only described how hurt she was. She did suggest that she was having problems in her relationship around 2013 and frames it around her own personal spiritual journey, which she credits with giving her the tools to survive her divorce.
On embarrassing her kids and her divorce
I can’t talk about them because they’re gonna be 15 and like, “Mom, why did you say that? You’re embarrassing me!” I have to think a little bit about that now. But I just think… I don’t know how else to be. Everybody knows what happened to me. I got a divorce. It’s the worst thing that can happen to me besides death.
Her divorce was devastating
My whole life all I wanted to do was be a mother and a wife… In February (2015), my family fell apart. It was devastating. I didn’t know what to do. It was a real big secret, but as I just explained, I’m not good with that. I tried everything to fix it. By June (2015), I went into the studio and started writing. I was praying. I had already started on a spiritual journey when I got pregnant with Apollo (in 2013) that was sort of like, “Wow, really? I’m gonna be blessed with a baby… now?” That was a miracle. It just started me on this spiritual journey and thank God it started then because I was prepared when I had the tragedy. I had that nest of spirituality in me.
On criticism of letting her boys paint their nails and dye their hair
Of course everyone’s gonna have their perspective and their opinion, and I know what’s real and what’s honest and true, and that’s really all that matters to me and all that’s important. So, it doesn’t really bother me. As long as my boys are protected and happy and I’m spending quality time with them, whether it’s doing sports or doing nails, it really doesn’t matter.
Q: “What would you say to one of your boys if they came out to you one day?”
I would be blessed with a gay son. You know that I would feel blessed about that. I just want my boys to be happy and healthy, and I just ask God to guide me every day to be a good mother because it is not an easy job.
I’ve been lucky enough to have such a blessed life. I’ve been able to travel the world and meet so many different kinds of people. And it doesn’t really matter if you’re gay, straight, whatever. There are good and bad people, and I would be happy. I just want my kids to be happy, and whatever journey God gives them is their journey.
On how it’s better now for gay people growing up, she calls “The Danish Girl” “The Dutch Girl”
I do know that it’s gotta be difficult to be the alternative, to not be the mainstream, or to be different, if you want to call it that. I feel like it’s less and less (like that) these days, and it’s hard for me to understand because it doesn’t seem different or weird or anything anymore because it just seems so normal to me. I just saw that movie… what was it… “The Dutch Girl”?
“The Danish Girl”…?
Yeah, “The Danish Girl.” I think what was so incredible about that movie was just – that was so long ago. I mean, can you imagine back then? Whoa. Now it feels like nothing anymore.
[From Pride Source]
Her heart’s in the right place, even if she comes across as rather ditzy at times. The entire interview is long and well worth reading if you’re interested in her at all. Stefani references God and feeling “blessed” multiple times, as she’s done in past interviews. She peppers so many religious references into the conversation that she sounds like she’s from the south. It makes me wonder if that’s Blake Shelton’s influence, because Stefani was raised Catholic in California. I’m a former Catholic too and in my experience we don’t bring up God that much in everyday conversation.
As for the end of her relationship with Gavin Rossdale, she describes it as a tragedy and like a death, which she’s said before. Stefani claims that she has a confessional nature but she seems to be hinting around the details behind her divorce, like she’s trying to keep some things from the public but is just dying to tell us. She may be doing that with the lyrics to her songs. “Red Flag” is about a one-sided relationship imploding “Big mistake, red flags fly… you know how to blow up” while “Naughty” definitely seems to be about Rossdale. Read these lyrics, “You did it, and then you hid it…The naughty, naughty things you do. I think there’s something that you might perhaps forgot to say. Locked in the closet but it never goes away.” That closet line sounds telling right?
This is What The Truth Feels Like is currently number one on Billboard’s Hot 200 charts. It’s Stefani’s first number one album.
photos credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet
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