Gwen Stefani's songs are a sweet return to the past.
The 54-year-old singer released “Somebody Else,” the next single from her upcoming album “Bouquet,” on Friday and didn't hold back on the country-rock track.
Stephanie reveals why she had to leave her ex-husband – and how she's much happier now because he's “someone else's problem”.
“I don't know what a heart like mine was doing in a love like that,” she sings in the opening line. “I don't know what a woman like me was doing with a man like you / But now I've found a love so true.”
Stephanie In fact The chorus elaborates, stating: “Now that I've found the real thing / You don't compare / And I don't care if you're someone else / And it doesn't even break my heart / You're someone else / And I pray for them, no matter who they are.”
The “Just a Girl” artist also made it clear to fans that she doesn't want to relive the past: “If I could go back in time, I'd erase you / But I can never go back there.”
And elsewhere in the song, Stefani details the unnamed ex's unpleasant characteristics: “Narcissistic, semi-psychopathic, so manipulative”, singing: “I bought it every time / But not this time / You gaslighted, my world was burning down / I had to leave before it stopped spinning / So happy I could cry / Cause you're not mine.”
Many listeners speculated that the singer was talking about her ex-husband, Gavin Rossdale.
Stefani and Bush's 58-year-old frontman were together for 20 years and married for nearly 13 before breaking up in 2015. The two share three sons: Kingston, 18, Zuma, 16, and Apollo, 10.
The No Doubt star married Blake Shelton in 2014 after they met on the set of “The Voice” and began officially dating a year later.
At the time, the two were going through their own divorces (the country star, 48, split from his wife, country star Miranda Lambert, 40). Stefani and Shelton married in July 2021.
Rossdale has also moved on, having been linked to electro-pop artist Joanna X last May.
Since their split, Stefani and Rossdale have continued to jointly parent their children, with the rocker reflecting on his past relationship in August.
“We had a great time, you know?” he told the Post. “It's crazy how life works, and how (there) all of this happened — and then nothingThis is unbelievable.”
“I have three beautiful sons from that time and that part of my life,” Rossdale said.
In March, the band members also revealed their desire to do something different.
“It would be nice if I had more of a connection with the person who made them. So that's different,” Rossdale said on Amy Robach and TJ Holmes' podcast “Amy and T.J.,“So, I feel bad for my kids, that's it. That's the biggest thing.”
“Everything else comes with the territory, and there's all sorts of other things… If I could be the most honest, that would be the deepest thing, like, I wish I could find a way for this not to happen in their lives,” Rossdale said.
But the musician — who is also dad to daughter Daisy Lowe, 35, from a previous relationship — has no problem being present for his and Stefani’s kids despite their new romance.
Rossdale added, “I go to a lot of events where there's another team, and I'm really proud of my consistency as a dad. I know in my heart that I'm very consistent. Yeah, of course, like everybody else, I'm flawed and things haven't gone as well as I wanted them to.”
Even when he's away from the kids on tour, he says, “there's an intrinsic bond between us that's so strong and so present that I'm very proud of it. It's unbreakable.”
