"You just crumble, you know?" Gwen Stefani gets candid about her separation from Gavin Rossdale.

March 15, 2016

Image: Getty.

She’s the tough platinum blonde who ain’t no hollaback girl but her public separation from husband Gavin Rossdale last year after she discovered his affair with the nanny made Gwen Stefani fall.

“I was dead. I was literally dead, like panicking – like anyone would be,” she told USA Today. (Watch. People share the moment they knew their relationship was over. Post continues after video.)

The pair have three children together; Kingston, 9, Zuma, 7, and Apollo, 2.

Stefani then had to live out that shock in the public eye once news broke.

“Last February – I think a lot of people know my life fell apart – my family fell apart, everything fell apart. Together 20 [years]. You just crumble, you know?,” she said in an interview with NPR.

“I felt quite embarrassed. I was all the way down. And I just felt like, ‘God I gotta turn this around. I can’t go down like this’.”

It was then the 46 year old found support – and love – on the set of The Voice with fellow coach Blake Shelton.

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The country singer had also recently gone through a public divorce from his wife of four years, Miranda Lambert.

"I think that when you go through what I went through, or what I’m still going through, you think you’re hopeless. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You panic," Stefani told Refinery 29.

"It was a really super-unexpected gift to find a friend, somebody who happened to be going through the exact same thing as me, literally mirroring my experience. I don’t think it’s an accident that that happened. It saved me."

As a way to cope, Stefani threw herself into music, channeling her frustrations of her separation from Rossdale and her new feelings for Shelton into a new album. While the response from fans to her personal songs have proved overwhelmingly positive, her record label wasn't always convinced. (Post continues after gallery.)

Celebrities talking about their break ups.

Jennifer Aniston.It was possibly one of the most talked about Hollywood break ups - Jen and Brad. In an interview with Vanity Fair Jen shared her experience, "There are many stages of grief. It's sad, something coming to an end. It cracks you open, in a waycracks you open to feeling. When you try to avoid the pain, it creates greater pain. I'm a human being, having a human experience in front of the world. I wish it weren't in front of the world. I try really hard to rise above it." Image via WikiCommons.

Rita Ora.Rita discussed her break up with Calvin Harris in Marie Claire, "It was more of a thing where I was in awe. I was at that point in my relationship where I felt he could do no wrong. I thought he had my back and that he'd never steer me wrong. But then 'I Will Never Let You Down' came out, and everything started to go a bit weird. I don't know if it was because business was mixed with personal or what." Image via Instagram (@ritaora).

Demi Moore.Demi Moore discussed her breakup with Ashton Kutcher with Harpers Bazar - "I used to think that what scared me was the idea of being abandoned until someone said to me, 'Only children can be abandoned. Adults can't be abandoned because we have a choice. Children don't have a choice.' So I started to rethink. 'OK, it's not that. What's the underlying thread that really scares me?' I think what scares me is not having the courage to reach my full potential." Image via Twitter (@justdemi).

Kim Kardashian.On her website, KimKardashian.com Kim shared her breakup with Kris Humphries, "I felt like I was on a fast roller coaster and couldn't get off when now I know I probably should have. I got caught up with the hoopla and the filming of the TV show that when I probably should have ended my relationship, I didn't know how to and didn't want to disappoint a lot of people." Image via Instagram.

J-Lo."It felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest." - Jennifer Lopez on Ben Affleck, in her memoir True Love. Image via Instagram.

Reese Witherspoon"[Divorce is] very humiliating and very isolating... But, by the way, if it's not painful, maybe it wasn't the right decision to marry to begin with." - Elle Magazine. Image via WikiCommons.

Cameron Diaz."When I was going through a bit of a heartbreak a little while ago, I said to a friend, 'Wow, this really hurts!' And he said to me, 'That just shows you what your capacity for loving is.' I would rather have my heart broken a thousand times than never to love at all. I have so much love to give I'm not empty of love, I'm full of love." - Cameron discussing her break up with Alex Rodriguez in InStyle. Image via Instagram.

Katy Perry.During an interview on The Project Katy discussed her break up with Russell Brand - "Sometimes you can be blinded by your extreme emotions. I definitely was looking for answers during that time I wrote that song ["The Grace of God"]. And yeah, I was depressed, and it was sad, and there were thoughts, but there were never actions, thankfully." Image via Instagram.

Taylor Swift."There's just been this earth-shattering, not recent, but absolute crash-and-burn heartbreak, and that will turn out to be what the next album is about. The only way that I can feel better about myself pull myself out of that awful pain of losing someone is writing songs about it to get some sort of clarity." - Taylor Swift, Vogue. Image via Instagram.

Emma Stone."I was crawling on the floor. I remember throwing up. I remember being on the floor... I have never felt anything quite like that. It was so visceral. It's like someone has killed you and you have to live through it and watch it happen. It was awful." - Emma Stone on her first heartbreak, Interview. Image via WikiCommons.

"We wrote a song called ‘Rocket Ship,’ and that’s when the label said to me, 'Listen, we think this overall album you’re writing is too personal. We don’t think people are going to relate. You should just put out an art record.' And I was like, 'Are you kidding me? I’m literally channeling God here. I’m saving my own life with this record and you come and punch me in the face?'," she said.

"The next day I went in and told those guys, 'Let’s write the most fucking personal shit, ever — opposite of what anyone would want to hear.' And that’s when we wrote 'Used to Love You.'"

All we can say is we're glad she did.

What's your go-to breakup song?

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