Blake Shelton Reveals How He Really Feels About Gwen Stefani Replacing Adam Levine On ‘The Voice’

Blake Shelton is opening up about his girlfriend Gwen Stefani replacing Adam Levine on Season 17 of The Voice after the Maroon 5 singer announced his pretty surprising departure from the show last month. The country star spoke candidly about the big shakeup in a new interview with People, jokingly admitting that although he’ll miss his frenemy on the show, his new co-coach is much better-looking than his former.

“We’re all going to miss Adam. There’s no way around it,” the “God’s Country” singer joked in the interview. “But [Gwen’s] way better looking than he is, in my opinion.”

He also admitted, after stating earlier this week that his girlfriend’s return softened the blow of Adam’s exit, that he won’t be letting their loving four-year romance get in the way of his competitive streak as the mom-of-three returns to her iconic red spinning chair after last appearing as a full-time coach on Season 12 back in 2017.

“I’m glad that she’s already feeling competitive. Of course, I’m not going to let her win. I’m going to have to win, but I’m going to have to do it in a way that she doesn’t feel like I beat her,” Shelton revealed after filming for the new season kicked off earlier this week with the iconic Blind Audition stages.

“I definitely don’t want to upset her — that’s not going to pay off for me in the long run,” he then continued of going head to head with the “Rich Girl” singer. “This will be her fourth time on the show, so she’s no stranger to it. She knows what she’s doing.”

The twosome will be sitting alongside Kelly Clarkson and John Legend on the new season, which is set to debut on NBC on September 23. As The Inquisitr reported earlier this week, Gwen recently appeared to be getting pretty excited on her Instagram Stories as she shared the first snap from the set as filming began.

But when he’s not thinking about Stefani’s big return to The Voice for the upcoming 17th season, Shelton is reminiscing about the very impressive four years of love he’s shared with the singer, who he first met on the NBC singing competition back in 2014. At the time, Blake was married to former wife Miranda Lambert and Gwen was married to her ex-husband Gavin Rossdale, with whom she shares three children.

Country star Blake told People of his whirlwind romance with his girlfriend, which blossomed in the wake of their respective divorces, that he thinks it’s “shocking” that they’ve already been together for so long. He also called their relationship a “blur.”

Shelton then continued in the interview, “It still feels like it’s pretty new to me. I guess it is, relatively.”

“Four years isn’t forever, but man, it seems like it just happened in no time.”

As for his confessions about Adam, The Inquisitr previously reported earlier this week that Blake admitted in another recent interview that he actually never expected his now-former co-star to leave the singing show in the way he did, while also admitting that he was left feeling “pretty upset” by his decision to exit.

However, Blake also added that he knew the “Moves Like Jagger” singer is happy about his departure.