Gavin Rossdale compares co-parenting with Gwen Stefani to ‘two-lane highway’ and neither ‘seem to merge’

The musicians, who divorced in 2016, share three sons: Kingston, Zuma, and Apollo.

Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale in 2014; Stefani with her sons in 2023.Credit: Chris Polk/PMA2014/Getty; Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty

When it comes to co-parenting, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale stay in their own lanes.

The exes share three sons — Kingston, 19, Zuma, 17, and Apollo, 11 — and in the decade since they divorced, they’ve kept things mostly “cool” because they parent the boys separately, with little to no influence over the other.

“It’s a very, it is an interesting kind of… it’s a two-lane highway, you know,” the Bush rocker explained to Fox News Digital. “But they don’t ever seem to merge, which is fine.”

Gavin Rossdale with his kids, Apollo, Daisy Lowe (from previous relationship), Zuma, and Kingston.Gavin Rossdale/Instagram

Stefani, now married to Blake Shelton, is “probably doing the best she can, and I’m doing the best I can,” continued Rossdale, 60. “And the kids are growing up, so I’m a proud proponent of the system.”

He focuses on what he can control as a father, and that’s demonstrating to his sons how not to be “jerks.”

“I think that if you’ve got kids that are unlikable, they’ve got a tough life ahead, you know,” said Rossdale, who is also father to model Daisy Lowe, 37, from a previous relationship.

“Life is hard enough without being a jerk, without being kind of aware of other people, mindful of other people, considerate of other people, empathetic… And so all those things that I try to do my best in my life to be… Just try to show by example with my kids, consistent friends, consistent people around, and a sort of a steady approach to life,” he added.

The two older sons are already following in the footsteps of their musical parents.

Zuma recently joined Rossdale on tour with Bush in 2025, playing guitar on several songs including the band’s 1995 hit “Comedown.”

“You are a magical guy,” Rossdale gushed in an Instagram post celebrating Zuma’s 17th birthday. “You being on tour and closing the show with us has been one of the best experiences I ever had on stage. We all love you to the stars.”

Eldest son Kingston made his solo debut in 2023 when he warmed the stage for his mom and stepfather at Shelton’s Oklahoma music venue, Ole Red. The teen, who fronts his own band, performed an original song backed by an acoustic guitarist.

As for youngest son Zuma, Stefani recently revealed he was her “miracle” after she prayed to get pregnant in her early 40s.

“I really wanted to have another baby, I really did, and I couldn’t. I was old,” she said in an interview with the payment-based Catholic prayer app Hallow.

Kingston’s prayers for a baby sibling also helped. “I never taught him that, really,” Stefani added. “I think it was like four weeks later, I was pregnant with Apollo, who I had at 44 years old — naturally, totally full-on gift. That was the first miracle!”

Gwen Stefani with her sons and husband Blake Shelton in 2023.Christopher Polk/Getty

Rossdale previously described the divorce as “clearest, simplest shame” because of how it would affect his sons.

“I feel bad for my kids, that’s it,” he told Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes on their podcast in 2024. “That would be the most profound thing, of like, I wish I could have just figured out a way to not have that in their lives.”

Rossdale, who grew up in London, was a child of divorce himself.

“It wasn’t fun for me to be from a broken home,” he said on the Amy & T.J. podcast. “I think in a way it gave me a career so I don’t mind, because I turned it around into sort of an interesting career path, but it can be quite debilitating for kids… The overriding thing is like, you don’t want to let your kids down.”