Gwen Stefani and Miranda Lambert had a bit of an awkward run-in.
These days, Miranda Lambert is happily with Brendan McLoughlin and Blake Shelton has famously moved on with the legendary Gwen Stefani.
But it’s a small world. Especially for Country stars (and their partners) who run in similar professional circles.
Gwen and Blake don’t seem to mind highlighting the inherent awkwardness of running into your ex — or your husband’s ex. Especially since Blake and Miranda did not part on good terms.
Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, and Gwen Stefani seemed to have an awkward run-in
At the 2024 ACM Awards on Thursday, May 16, Miranda Lambert debuted a new song, “Wranglers.”
But she was not the only former member of her erstwhile marriage to perform.
Blake Shelton stood up on stage mere moments later. He and Gwen Stefani performed “Purple Irises,” their new duet that they unveiled recently.
Naturally, plenty of social media users, including Twitter’s remaining user base, were quick to observe how (presumably still bitter) exes Blake and Miranda performed back-to-back.
“Miranda Lambert playing her song Wranglers in front of Blake Shelton and later Blake and Gwen singing a duet in front of Miranda is MUST SEE TV,” tweeted one user.
Another wrote: “Watching this year’s CMA out of boredom, and my main thought so far is that, while “Wrangers” is far FAR away from my favorite Miranda Lambert song, her out-singing & out-performing Blake & Gwen will never NOT be utterly hilarious.”
Not everyone was Team Miranda, either
“Blake Shelton going from Miranda lambert to Gwen Stefani might possibly be the biggest upgrade of all time,” another Twitter user expressed.
Others simply marveled at the audacity of scheduling them back to back. One tweeter highlighted: “They are all here! Miranda! Blake. Gwen!”
Tweeted another: “The [#ACMawards] having Miranda Lambert and Gwen-Blake in the same performance line up is CRAZY to me.”
Neither Blake Shelton nor Miranda Lambert have a lot of high ground. The formerly married couple both accused each other of cheating.
In fact, they were both in relationships before performing a duet together that sparked their relationships. Blake had been married at the time, while Miranda was engaged.
Blake spoke about Miranda’s alleged cheating while bonding with Gwen Stefani (at the time a fellow coach on The Voice) in 2015. This was after she had described Gavin Rossdale’s alleged cheating.
The awkwardness will continue
Blake and Gwen bonding over both being (alleged) victims of cheating spouses ended up forming the foundation of their relationship. Only Gwen, out of all of them, has never faced cheating accusations.
It was an odd union. Gwen is a mainstream music artist, while Blake — like his ex, Miranda — is a star within the niche genre of Country. Somehow, he has wrangled Gwen into his world, rather than the other way around.
This will likely not be the last backstage run-in between Blake, his current wife, and his ex-wife. Especially not if Country Music events want to make headlines.
