Gwen Stefani says that filming The Voice without Blake Shelton by her side has been a major change. After all, Shelton’s been on all 23 of the show’s seasons so far, so anytime she’s been a coach, he’s been one, too.
“It’s really different being on the show without him,” the singer acknowledges in an interview with Today ahead of the Season 24 premiere, where she’ll be a coach alongside John Legend, Niall Horan and Shelton’s country replacement Reba McEntire.
“I miss him so bad on the show,” Stefani continues, but also points out that there was a silver lining to Shelton’s departure.
“It hasn’t been as hard as I thought it was gonna be, because I think he was so ready to have a break that it was kinda weighing on me the last season we were on there,” she admits. “I still really love being on the show.”
Shelton announced he was retiring from The Voice in late 2022, but he’s since revealed that he was thinking about stepping away for about two years before finally taking the plunge. But that timing coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, and he didn’t want to shake up The Voice‘s lineup during what was already a tumultuous time.
“Because of COVID, I didn’t wanna walk away from the show and leave everybody in a bind. I mean, this show changed my life — I’ll stay here until the world kinda gets back to normal again,” the singer said at that time.
Season 24 of The Voice is set to premiere on Sept. 25.