Gwen Stefani’s ex Gavin Rossdale admits ‘shame’ over divorce, wishes they had ‘more of a connection’

The Bush frontman said the ‘clearest, simplest shame’ of his life was his divorce from the ‘Hollaback’ singer

Gavin Rossdale is getting candid about some of the shame he feels as a dad.

During an appearance on the latest episode of the “Amy & Tj” podcast with former ABC News hosts Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes, the British musician opened up about his divorce from Gwen Stefani and how it impacted their three children: sons Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10.

“There’s a private shame that we all feel and share,” said Holmes, whose intimate affair with Robach made national headlines in 2022. “Where did that show up in your life and career?”

“My clearest, simplest shame is that you have an ideal… my parents were both married three times each, a very colorful background. I never thought I’d ever get divorced,” said Rossdale, who was married to the “Hollaback Girl” singer from 2002 to 2016.

Gavin Rossdale says his divorce from Gwen Stefani is his “simple shame.” (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images | Tyler Golden/NBC via Getty Images)

“If there’s a simple shame in my life… I think there are no accidents in life and you are where you’re meant to be,” he added. “I don’t live in regret. Life just unfolds as it should, whether it’s comfortable or uncomfortable. It just is what it is.”

“The biggest thing would be, sometimes I wish that when you see the kids, sometimes there’s a loss,” he continued. “It’d be nice if there was more of a connection with the person who made them with me.”

Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale were married from 2002 to 2016 and share three children. (Chris Polk/PMA2014/Getty Images for dcp)

Rossdale added that he often feels “bad” for his kids for ultimately being part of a “broken home.”

“That’s the overriding thing,” he said. “The rest of it comes with the territory. That is the most profound thing of like, I wish I could have found a way to not have that in their lives. It wasn’t fun for me to come from a broken home.”

“It can be quite debilitating for kids,” he concluded. “It’s just that aspect of it. Not the adult aspect of it because that’s its own stratosphere of discussion. Some shameful things in there to an extent, but the overriding thing is you don’t want to let your kids down.”

Gwen Stefani is now married to country star Blake Shelton. (Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images)

This isn’t the first time the Bush frontman has opened up about his relationship with Stefani, who married Blake Shelton after six years of dating in 2021, post divorce.

Rossdale shared his approach to co-parenting with Stefani during an appearance on the “Not So Hollywood” podcast in June 2023.

“I think you can go one or two ways,” he said. “You can either do everything together and really co-parent and see how that goes, or you just parent. And I think we just parent.”

“We’re very different people,” he added. “I don’t think there’s much similarity in the way we bring them up, but I think that gives them an incredible perspective to then choose which of which pieces of those two lives they’d like to inherit and move on with and which part of themselves comes out of the whole process.”

Gavin Rossdale arrives in style at the American Music Awards 2022. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

For Rossdale, the most important thing he can give his children is “a wide view of things.”

“We definitely have some particularly opposing views,” he said of he and Stefani. “So, I think that would be really helpful for them to make up their own minds, as they should as individuals.”

“So, when I have them, doing my thing, my way of things, and then the other way, the other way.I think that they are now at the age where they’re starting to appreciate which elements of which house they might take on into adulthood. And maybe none of it, you know, maybe they sort of like become something different.”

“Whether you co-parent or parent — and I definitely parent — it’s just about I know that wherever they are, either house, they’re loved and supported,” he concluded.