Gwen Stefani: 'Divorce shattered my dreams... and my family'

Gwen Stefani's divorce ended her dream marriage and saw the singer lose half of her time with her sons.

The 46-year-old split from ex-husband, Gavin Rossdale, after two decades together following unconfirmed reports suggesting the Bush frontman had been having an affair with the family childminder Mindy Mann, which Gwen discovered in February, 2015.

After finding happiness with new beau, singer and her The Voice co-star Blake Shelton, and releasing a hit album, Gwen reflected on the bombshell end to her marriage, which had a life-changing impact on the star.

"My dreams were shattered," Gwen shared in an interview with Harper's Bazaar. "All I wanted my whole life was to have babies, be married, like what my parents have."

The singer's parents are about to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

While she appreciates that life is good again, the mother-of-three shared how "insane" the breakup was, and the fact that it changed her family life beyond recognition.

"It was so insane because not only did my family break up, but then my kids are taken away like half the time, so that was really like, 'What?! What did I do?'" Gwen sighed as she admitted the toughest part of the uncoupling was having to split custody of sons Kingston, 10 Zuma, seven and Apollo, two, with 50-year-old Gavin.

Gwen's marriage split drove her to record her most personal album yet, This Is What Truth Feels Like, which earned the star her first number one as a solo artist in America, and her duet with Blake, Go Ahead and Break My Heart, also hit number one in the country charts.

The singer credits her recovery in part to her growing closeness to former The Voice colleague Blake Shelton. The pair started dating after after Blake revealed to the blonde star he was going through a divorce with Miranda Lambert.

"It was like being handed this gift of a friend who was going through the exact same thing at the exact same time," Gwen smiled.