At the tail end of my college years, a band from Orange County, Calif., burst onto the national scene. MTV News called this group a “ska-punk band” — it seemed like a lot of new bands in that era received that moniker — but No Doubt’s music was a true fusion of ska (along with rocksteady and reggae) and rock with more of a punk edge than a punch sound and a sparkling pop melodic sensibility.
But what set No Doubt apart was its charismatic frontwoman, Gwen Stefani. She had a unique combination of that aforementioned punk edge and SoCal glamor. Add her boundless energy and truly unique voice into the mix, and a rockstar was born.
“Just a Girl” was a fun hit, but No Doubt won me over with “Spiderwebs.” And then “Don’t Speak” launched them into the stratosphere; somebody (I don’t remember who) said several years later that if the record label had released a physical single for “Don’t Speak,” it would’ve become the biggest number one hit of all time.
No Doubt had a few more years of success, and Stefani began a massively successful solo career. Additionally, she married Gavin Rossdale of the band Bush and had three kids. When they divorced, she married country singer Blake Shelton.
Side note: After she divorced Rossdale, she was supposed to marry me. I guess she didn't get the memo.
In recent years, Stefani has been more out front about her Catholic faith. She has been a practicing Catholic for years, but she currently partners with Hallow, a Catholic prayer and Bible study app that also markets to non-Catholic Christians. She and Shelton also lead traditional lives, which is unusual for a pair of longtime professional musicians.
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Stefani’s openly faithful life and loyalty to her marriage have apparently made her a target of leftist ire. The Telegraph, the center-right (or should I say centre-right?) UK news outlet, published a feature over the weekend about how Stefani has become “an enemy of the left.”
Of course, part of this stems from Stefani’s faith and her partnership with Hallow, which is — GASP! — pro-life. The Telegraph’s Poppie Platt writes of how Stefani is wadding panties everywhere:
Stefani recently found herself in hot water over her decision to partner with the popular American “prayer and Bible study” app Hallow, which is anti-abortion and counts major Trump donor – and PayPal founder – Peter Thiel among its investors. Its other prominent celebrity backers include two of Hollywood’s most famous Christians, Mark Wahlberg and Chris Pratt.
After Stefani shared a video encouraging her fans to download the app and join its Lent prayer challenge – “Hey everyone, I just got my ashes, and I’m ready for Lent… Check it out. God bless,” she gushed – her more liberally minded followers went into meltdown. “This ‘Maga makeover’ thing is really gross,” one wrote on Instagram, while another said Stefani’s “pandering to the racist rednecks in this country is really disappointing to see.”
Platt points out that Stefani has engaged in what the left would consider “cultural appropriation” for years: hip-hop affectations, nods to Latin culture, the Harajuku girls. Yet Stefani has never uttered the first mealy-mouthed apology for any of it.
And while Stefani hasn’t made any overt political statements that I can find, she did share an interview that Tucker Carlson did before he went full antisemitic Qatari stooge with The Chosen star Jonathan Roumie, another devoted Catholic. That was a problem for leftist pearl clutchers.
Stefani has traded the Los Angeles-area life for something more settled with Shelton. My friend and colleague Sarah Anderson sent me a video Shelton made of the garden that he and Stefani are planting. He refers to her as “my wife — her name’s Gwen.”
Her desire for a more traditional life is nothing new. After all, she wrote No Doubt’s single “Simple Kind of Life,” in which she contrasted settling down with a family against the nomadic life of a musician. But living that simple kind of life in reality is too much for leftists.
Platt writes:
In 2024, she released the country-influenced album Bouquet, filled with songs that swapped the feminist-friendly, girl-boss messaging No Doubt was famous for – on angsty hits such as Just A Girl – for odes to marriage and settling down; it was duly slammed by critics.
The fact it was recorded in Nashville with help from her country star husband Shelton only added further fuel to the fire for her liberal former fans, who felt like she had replaced independence with subservience. In response to the fuss over the Hallow advert, one X user said: “She’s married to a God-loving Southern country singer, what do you expect?”
Here’s what it all boils down to: the left despises normalcy. The kind of people who faithfully worship, plant gardens, and live quiet lives with spouses and kids are the kind of people leftists hate. Stefani is part of this segment of Americans who become targets of left-wing vitriol — whether she’s actually MAGA or not. And that tells you far more about the left than it ever tells you about Stefani.
If you’ve noticed that faith, family, and living a normal life increasingly make you a target of the cultural elites, you’re not imagining it. At PJ Media, we’re committed to calling that out and defending the values that built this country.
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