Back in November, Gwen Stefani admitted that part of the reason she fell for country singer Blake Shelton was because he showed her unexpected kindness during her divorce from husband Gavin Rossdale. It may sound like she mistook affection for the bare minimum of human decency, but Shelton says he was attracted to Stefani for similar reasons.

In a recent Billboard profile, Shelton said his fellow The Voice judges about his split from ex-wife Miranda Lambert long before announcing it to the public. While he didn't know Stefani beyond small talk at the time, he was touched by her emotional response to the news.

"I won't forget that day," he said. "I looked over at Gwen -- who I didn't really know -- and she had these huge tears in her eyes. I thought, 'Wow, she feels super bad for me!’"

Shelton continued, saying he assumed Stefani would dole out the same well-meaning (but ultimately empty) platitudes he'd already received from several others. But that wasn't the case.

"I thought it was going to be another one of those things-are-going-to-be-OK talks," Shelton said. "She didn't tell me much, because we didn't know each other at the time, but she said, 'I'm going through something very similar to what you're going through. I understand. And I hate it.' That's kind of how our friendship and bond started, that day."

Things quickly progressed between the pair, who became emotional crutches for each other soon after.

"It went from that, to checking in on each other once a week through email -- 'This shit happened to me, what happened to you?' -- to maybe three times a week, then every day, to 'Hey, here's my phone number if you ever want to text,'" he said. "Next thing I know, I wake up and she's all I care about, and I'm ­wondering if she feels the same about me.”

Then, Blake made a pretty heavy declaration, saying, "Gwen saved my life. Who else on earth could understand going through a high-profile divorce from another musician? You can't even imagine the similarities in our divorces.”

Head over to the official site to read Blake Shelton's full profile with Billboard.

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