Singer and songwriter Gwen Stefani says that becoming pregnant with her youngest son later in life played a significant role in deepening her spiritual journey and inspiring her to embrace Christianity.
In a recent interview published on the YouTube channel of the Christian prayer app Hallow on Thursday, March 5, Stefani, now 56, reflected on the circumstances that led to her faith transformation. The three-time Grammy Award winner explained that her pregnancy with her son Apollo Bowie Flynn Rossdale at the age of 43 felt like a miracle that awakened her spiritually.
“I really wanted to have another baby. I really did,” Stefani said in the interview. “I couldn’t and I was old and [I] started talking about all these things … it was waking me up.”
Stefani welcomed Apollo in February 2014 shortly after turning 44. She shares three sons with her former husband Gavin Rossdale: Kingston James McGregor Rossdale, born in May 2006; Zuma Nesta Rock Rossdale, born in August 2008; and Apollo. Stefani and Rossdale separated in 2015 after more than a decade of marriage. In 2021, the singer married country music star and fellow coach from the television show The Voice, Blake Shelton.
Stefani described how a combination of personal experiences and conversations around faith began reshaping her outlook during that time. She recalled working with a friend who had undergone his own spiritual transformation, moving from atheism toward belief.
“I started working with this guy, and he was really like an atheist Jew that converted after being an atheist growing up in Israel,” she said. “He was studying the Torah, and he had this big epiphany and awakening and he starts talking to me about the Torah.”
At the same time, Stefani said her eldest son Kingston expressed a heartfelt wish for another sibling. According to the singer, Kingston began praying for his parents to have another baby despite never being taught to do so.
“I told him, ‘I’m sorry. Mommy is too old to have a baby,’” Stefani recalled. At the time, Kingston was eight years old. “He was like, ‘Please God, let my mommy have a baby.’ I just remember thinking, look at my little boy. He’s praying for me!”
Stefani said Kingston continued praying every night for several weeks. Soon after, she discovered she was pregnant.
“I think it was four weeks later and I was pregnant with Apollo, who I had at 44 years old, naturally, totally a full-on gift,” she said. “That was the first miracle.”
The singer acknowledged that her spiritual journey began during a period when she felt she knew little about Christianity. Even today, she says she continues learning and exploring her faith.
“I was ignorant,” Stefani admitted, adding that she still feels there is much more for her to understand. “It’s almost scary because the more you know, the more fear you get. You realize, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m running out of time and I need to get this together. I’ve got to be a real Christian! I’m not gonna make it.’”
Stefani said the next major moment in her faith journey came years later during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when she began searching for religious content online. During that time, she discovered sermons by Catholic priest Mike Schmitz.
“That sermon really changed me,” she said. “I remember just bawling and being on fire. Like, I had found this truth.”
Since then, Stefani has worked closely with the Hallow app, which offers guided prayer and meditation sessions designed to help users grow spiritually. The platform describes itself as a tool that helps believers deepen their faith and find peace through prayer.
However, Stefani’s partnership with Hallow drew criticism in December 2025 after the app’s anti-abortion messaging resurfaced during a Christmas advent campaign. In promotional posts, Stefani encouraged her followers to join her in daily prayer through the platform.
“It is important this holiday season to spend time in prayer. That is what Christmas is all about: letting God into our hearts and letting Jesus bring us his peace,” she wrote at the time. “Download Hallow and join me and millions of others in praying every day this advent and Christmas season on Hallow.”
The campaign prompted backlash from some public figures, including Chrishell Stause, star of the Netflix reality series Selling Sunset. Stause criticized Stefani on Instagram, referencing the singer’s band No Doubt and its 1995 hit song Don’t Speak.
“Gwen—DON’T SPEAK,” Stause wrote in December 2025. “Please take your own advice on this one.”
Stause later expanded on her criticism, accusing Stefani of promoting an app whose messaging discourages abortion even in cases of rape or incest.
“Please stop making young girls feel guilty to not have a choice,” Stause wrote in a follow-up message.
The reality television star continued her critique by questioning how such messaging might affect vulnerable young women, writing that she would not want a public figure influencing someone in such circumstances.
Stefani has not publicly responded to Stause’s criticism regarding her partnership with the Hallow app.
Despite the controversy, the singer continues to speak openly about the role faith has played in her life, often describing the birth of her youngest son as a pivotal moment that shaped her spiritual outlook and strengthened her belief in divine intervention.