Blake Shelton Says His Relationship with Gwen Stefani Was 'Meant to Happen': I'm 'Absolutely' Happier Than I've Ever Been

Blake Shelton tells Chelsea Handler that "my life turned around" once he began dating Gwen Stefani

Photo: Netflix

Finding love again helped Blake Shelton forget about the heartbreak left in the wake of his divorce last year.

The country star sat down with Chelsea Handler for the new episode of her Netflix series Chelsea (available to stream on Friday) and dished on his split from Miranda Lambert and new romance with Gwen Stefani – both of which inspired his revealing hit album, If I’m Honest.

“Things kind of faded in and faded out as far as that timeline goes. But it would have started with last year when my marriage and everything just fell apart and trying to pick the pieces up from being at the rock bottom, you know, and trying to move forward,” Shelton, 40, told Handler, 41, of how the LP came together.

Last July, Shelton and Lambert announced that their marriage of nearly four years had ended. Shortly after, he became friends with and eventually began dating his The Voice costar Stefani, 46, who announced her divorce from Bush rocker Gavin Rossdale in August.

“Next thing you know, this person that I kinda knew – I had worked with on the show [but] I didn’t really know her that well, Gwen, that first time,” Shelton recalled. “Just, ‘Hey, how ya doin’?’ And then to all of a sudden [I] find out she’s going through basically the same exact same thing, at the same time.”

In November, PEOPLE exclusively confirmed their friendship turned into more.

“And this is how my life turned around – and so quickly, too, by the way,” Shelton added on Chelsea. “It’s like, ‘Woah.’ All of this has to be meant to happen; so I made a record about it. It makes me nervous to talk about it.”

Shelton said he’s mum about his relationship because he’s fearful of jinxing it, but Handler did ask: “Do you feel like you’re happier than you’ve ever been in your entire life?”

To which Shelton responded?

“There’s no question about that. Absolutely no question about that.”

Indeed, the couple have become almost inseparable. While Stefani was replaced by Christina Aguilera on the most recent season of The Voice, Shelton has gotten close to Stefani’s three sons (Kington, 10, Zuma, 7, and Apollo, 2), and the pair documented Shelton’s 40th birthday festivities all across social media last month.

And Shelton isn’t the only one opening up about their relationship. Stefani appears on the cover of the latest issue of Harper’s Bazaar and dished on their romance.

“It was like being handed this gift of a friend who was going through the exact same thing at the exact same time,” she told the fashion glossy. “And then everything flipped. It went from horrible to, like, hopeful and like, ‘Wow, God, you just don’t know what’s gonna happen next.'”