Blake Shelton: 'Gwen Stefani romance is an odd idea'

Blake Shelton can understand why fans are so interested in his budding romance with Gwen Stefani, because their unlikely pairing is "an odd idea".

The country star first met Gwen in 2014, when she initially joined him on the panel of judges on The Voice U.S.

At the time, they were both married to fellow singers Miranda Lambert and Gavin Rossdale, but when their unions broke down last summer (15), Blake and Gwen turned to one another for support, and their friendship soon evolved into a new romance.

They went public with the relationship in November (15), when Gwen joined her man at a CMA Awards afterparty in Nashville, Tennessee, and they have been flaunting their love for one another on social media and in their songs ever since.

The couple is currently enjoying chart success with one such track, Go Ahead And Break My Heart, which Blake initially started writing to "try to impress her".

He confessed on U.S. breakfast show Today, "I sent it to her just half done and said, 'I wrote a song, kind of about you,' and she wrote the next verse and sent it back to me. It was like, 'Well, we got a song together. That's kind of cool!'"

Blake had not intended for the tune to be included on his new album, If I'm Honest, but he had a change of heart after receiving such warm praise for the track from his loved ones.

"I played it for my sister and my mum and a few people, and they were like, 'My God, I love that song!'," he explained, "and so (I) decided to put it on the record and this crazy stuff started happening."

Blake and Gwen performed the emotional single for the first time on The Voice last week (ends13May16) to a standing ovation, and they will show off their chemistry again on Sunday (22May16), when they take the stage together at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas.

Blake acknowledges he is an unlikely suitor for the No Doubt frontwoman, a mother of three, but despite their differences "on paper", their relationship is going from strength to strength.

"It's a little weird, but I get it...," he admitted of the intense media scrutiny around his romance. "We could not be, on paper, any more different. I'm a country singer and she's a ska, rock, pop, whatever it is... It's just an odd idea. But man, it's a lot of fun. I've got to be honest about that."

Meanwhile, the 39-year-old credits the blonde beauty with helping him bounce back from his divorce.

"I tell people all the time, 'Gwen saved my life last year,'" he told CMT's Hot 20 Countdown. "She did, and I think she would probably tell you something similar about me."