Blake Shelton Admits Being a Stepdad to Gwen Stefani's 3 Sons Can Be 'Hard'

Blake Shelton sees wife Gwen Stefani's three sons as his own, but since the kids' father, Gavin Rossdale, is still in the picture, the country crooner admitted it can be difficult to know his place.

"I've had stepparents. I think it's, in some ways, it's harder, more difficult," he noted on the Friday, November 10, episode of Today.

"I try to be careful about when to step back and be smart about when to step back and just talk, but no matter what, I'm always there if I'm needed," added Shelton.

Stefani, 54, shares custody of Apollo, 9, Zuma, 15, and Kingston, 17, but the Bush singer, 58, revealed he and his ex don't really co-parent.

"I think you can go one of two ways — you can either do everything together and really co-parent, and see how that goes — or you can just parent," he said in an interview earlier this year. "And I think we just parent."

"We're really different people ... I don't think there's much similarity in the way we bring them up, but I think that gives them an incredible perspective to then choose which pieces of those two lives they'd like to inherit and move on with and which part of themselves come out of the whole process," Rossdale continued.

"Because that's what's important, is to give them a wide view of things," he concluded. "And we definitely have some particularly opposing views so I think it'd be really helpful for them to make their own minds as individuals"

In September, the blonde beauty discussed the hardships of their divorce, admitting, "It was terrible ... When that happened, I had to literally start over again. It was a reset of my life."

It was in 2014 that Stefani and the Barmageddon host, 47, crossed paths on the set of The Voice — and the rest is history!

"I didn't see any of this coming with Blake," Stefani insisted. "This was just a big old 'What?' It was an amazing gift to experience love like that for the first time. He's changed my life ... when I [started dating] Blake, that's when I felt home, like, 'Oh, this is where I'm supposed to be, with this guy.'"

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Though the music competition show is where they met, Shelton decided to end his 23-season stint earlier this year so he could be more present as a family man — though Stefani opted to return, making quality time just as scarce.

"I think I'd actually put out there to the press too because everybody wants to know, 'Why are you quitting? Why are you walking away from the show?' And it's like, 'Well, for the family, for more family time,'" he explained on Jimmy Kimmel's late night show on Wednesday, November 8. "And then the very next announcement is, 'Gwen's coming back!'"

"Maybe she doesn't want too much family time," he joked of his wife. "Money talks in this industry!"