Blake Shelton Gets to the Heart of How He Still Gets “Butterflies” Around Gwen Stefani

Shelton’s wife still leaves him in awe whenever she’s on stage.

If it wasn’t obvious by now, Blake Shelton really, really adores Gwen Stefani.

The former Voice Coach swung by the TODAY with Jenna & Friends set on May 13, and it wasn’t long until he was gushing about his wife and saying the sweetest things in front of Jenna Bush Hager and guest co-host Erin Andrews.

After congratulating Shelton on recently celebrating his tenth anniversary with the No Doubt frontwoman, Hager asked the star to reveal the secret to their marital success.

“You just hit ten with Gwen — what’s made it work?” Hager asked.

“Well, I just try not to screw up,” he answered. “I mean, she’s Gwen Stefani, if I mess that up, that’s the screw-up of a lifetime, right?”

“Is it true you still kind of get butterflies?” Hager followed up.

“Yes, obviously, every time I see her,” Shelton confessed. “But I’ll tell you what really blows me away about her… I know her as my wife, but I go to one of her concerts and I can never get used to that she’s also that, you know what I mean?”

“It’s unbelievable, I mean, she’s had so many hit songs in a genre where I think you’re probably lucky if you get two or three hits,” he continued. “She’s just got this amazing catalog of songs that she’s written about her life. It’s just unbelievable.”

Shelton being impressed by his wife’s career accomplishments is the kind of wholesome support fans love to see. Andrews even held her hand over her heart as she listened to the star wax poetic about his better half!

“Gwen, I think, would consider herself a songwriter before she would a singer or artist or anything,” Shelton revealed. “She loves the songwriting process.”

Blake Shelton wrote a song to win Gwen Stefani’s heart

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani attend Opry 100: A Live Celebration at Grand Ole Opry. Photo: Jason Kempin/Getty Images

As wonderful as their relationship is now, the bond between Shelton and Stefani almost never got off the ground. The two were close to cutting ties before it got too serious, inadvertently setting into motion one of the sweetest love stories ever.

“We had just met, and it was chaos,” Stefani explained to PEOPLE in 2024. “Both of our lives were in complete turmoil, all over the ground. Nothing could save us at that point. There was a point where I was like, ‘I can’t even talk to you. This is insane. I already have enough problems. This is not happening anymore. We’re not going to text or nothing.”

Shelton was determined to win her heart, and did what he does best: he began writing a song. Shelton started working on “Go Ahead and Break My Heart,” their eventual 2016 duet, and that’s when Stefani realized that she didn’t want to miss out on having the star in her life any longer.

“I think he really wanted to impress me, because he doesn’t really write songs as much as he used to,” she explained. “And I love writing songs. That’s everything to me. If I want to feel like I have any kind of purpose or any kind of value or anything, it’s about writing a song. That’s where I get my fulfillment.”