Nightline (April 4th 2016)

Gwen Stefani

DAN HARRIS (ABC NEWS) So what do you do if you're Gwen Stefani and you have to watch your messy divorce play out in the tabloids? You make a record about it. But as ABC's Lara Spencer found out, it was not easy.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) (Voiceover) It has been a monster year for Gwen Stefani. Rocking music charts with her hit song "Make Me Like You." A musical love letter to her new beau, country star Blake Shelton.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) So tell me about "Make Me Like You," though, how quickly did you write that?

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) That song was one of my favorite songs to write. We just came out. It was like, I had been feeling that way, like it's just exactly what I felt that day, I miss you right now. Here it is. You know what I mean? And everybody in the room was just kind of like, whoa, this is happening right now. It was written fast, like 10, 15 minutes, the whole thing just done.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) (Voiceover) They are the new Hollywood It couple, connecting on the set of "The Voice." Shelton, newly separated from country singer Miranda Lambert, was a shoulder to lean on, Stefani says, and eventually something more. He too released a song inspired by their romance called, "Came Here To Forget." And Stefani had her own past to forget. In the summer of 2015, she split from her husband of nearly 13 years, the father of her three sons, frontman of the rock band Bush, Gavin Rossdale. She filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences. Tabloids widely speculating that Rossdale had an affair with the couple's nanny.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) How painful was it putting your heart on paper?

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) It's still painful. Like it's, I'm still, like, looking at the pieces, going, what is happening, you know, there's so many great things. But it's still super hard to like have your family break up and have to like figure out the next, what do you do after that? Like here we are, we're doing it.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) (Voiceover) Just like she did in the classic 1996 No Doubt hit, "Don't Speak," inspired by her breakup with the band's bassist. Her work turned into a way to get her through the split, channeling her heartbreak into lyrics.

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) I had to make something good out of it, so I tried to write because I know that was my gift, and I was like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna make this into music.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) And yet the record label as you're showing them the music, wasn't into it.

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) After I'd written a bunch of songs, probably like 15 songs, they were kind of like, well this is, I don't know, it's a little harsh, like it's a little bit too honest. Like, I don't think people can relate to that. Because the first songs that I wrote were really, like, angry.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) (Voiceover) Those experiences just motivated the "Hollaback Girl" to become the comeback girl.

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) My God, I was embarrassed. I felt like, wow, I can't go down, like I don't want to, this is not who I am, I'm not going to fail.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) (Voiceover) She went back into the studio, this time with the emotional track "Used To Love You."

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) It was written like 20 minutes, like done. It was the first time in my entire career that a record company called me and said, we think you've got a big song.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) (Voiceover) It is one of many intensely personal songs on her new album "This Is What The Truth Feels Like."

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) "Make Me Like You" and "Misery" and "Truth," and like all the ones that are on the album.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) Listen to the titles of all these songs, "Red Flag." "Misery," "Truth," "I Used To Love You."

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) Don't. You're going to hurt. It's a lot, like this is a lot right here, okay, just so everyone knows. Like, it's hard to sit here and be like talking about all this as it's happening in real time.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) Do you think the music saved you?

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) For sure. Like 100%. 100%.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) Three-time Grammy winner, 30 million albums sold worldwide. Was there really a time that you believed your career was over?

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) I always felt like we're never gonna be on the radio, like I always felt like amazed by that achievement. So there was never a point where I was like, oh, this is gonna keep going. That's the reason I started LAMB and Harajuku and all these other like backup projects, because I always thought, how would I possibly be, it's going to end, it's going to end, it's going to end. So it just keeps kind of going, so I just feel like everything is really like icing on the cake at this point. But I feel so grateful. This is just, it's crazy.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) Grateful and yet, you've gone through a lot.

GWEN STEFANI (SINGER & SONGWRITER) I have gone through a lot. But I feel like that is, you have to be grateful for that, because if I didn't do that then I wouldn't have this, and you have to be grateful for all of it.

LARA SPENCER (ABC NEWS) (Voiceover) For "Nightline" I'm Lara Spencer in New York.