Gwen Stefani has spoken candidly about the guilt she feels “every single day” when she has to spend time away from her children while opening up about juggling parenting and her career.
The Rich Girl singer, who shares sons Kingston, 14, Zuma, 12, and Apollo, seven, with her ex-husband Gavin Rossdale, discussed the realities of motherhood during an appearance on DJ Khaled’s podcast, The First One.
While reflecting on how becoming a mother has changed her life, Stefani told Khaled that she often feels guilty if work takes her away from her three children.
“I think it’s really hard to do it all, and impossible to do. And every single day, I feel guilty,” she said. “Like yesterday I was so guilty because I had a day off with the kids and then I got on a Zoom about doing a video or something and it was going on and on, for like an hour and a half, and I was like: ‘What am I doing? I have to get off the Zoom, this is my day with my kids.’”
“Like, so much guilt all the time,” she continued, before adding that it can also be hard to “be in the moment, too”.
“You’re with your kids and you want to be doing your thing, and then when you’re doing your thing, you want to be with your kids. It’s hard,” she said.
This is not the first time Stefani has revealed the guilt she feels over having to juggle work and parenting, as the 51-year-old previously told Vogue that she found it difficult to work on creating music when she knew she was missing out on things such as putting the children to bed.
“Getting to the studio and not being able to make it happen, but missing out on being at home, missing out on putting the kids down. What’s more important? I felt so guilty,” she said at the time. “I am letting everyone down in the studio right now; I’m letting down my kids; I’m letting myself down. Because time was so precious.”
Despite the struggles of motherhood, the singer, who is engaged to Blake Shelton, said she feels “really blessed” to have become a mother to three sons, as she had always dreamed of becoming a parent after seeing the relationship between her own parents.
She told the rapper: “I don’t take it lightly and I’m so grateful that I have them, and I got to have three boys.
“I don’t know why God chose me to be surrounded by boys my whole life, but here I am just surrounded by them, and I just feel really blessed.”
