Miranda Lambert Makes Rare Comments on 'Misery' of Blake Shelton Divorce: 'Not Fun'

Miranda Lambert is opening up about one of the toughest periods of her life, revealing how her "difficult" 2015 divorce from Blake Shelton affected her personally and creatively.

During the Tuesday, October 27, episode of the “And The Writer Is…” podcast, the country star reflected on the end of her marriage to the The Voice coach and the "misery" of navigating a breakup while both were established names in country music.

“I got divorced and that sucks for anyone, especially in the public eye, especially on tour, especially in the middle of a very public career — two of us — you know what I mean? It just was a really not fun time,” she recalled. “And I, in the meantime, had moved back to Nashville full-time, and so I dove headfirst into songwriting. I had missed it.”

Lambert spoke with host Ross Golan about how returning to Nashville helped her find a new creative direction. She eventually turned that difficult chapter into material for her sixth studio album, The Weight of These Wings.

Lambert explained that making the album was a different experience from recording her previous release, Platinum. Instead of writing specifically for a particular sound or project, she allowed her personal experiences to guide the process.

“And when I moved back [to Nashville] in 2015, I gathered up all of my friends and relationships from, you know, all of the previous years and just used it, used the misery,” the “Choosin’ Texas” hitmaker said.

“I used the staying out too late at honky-tonks,” she continued. “I used what I was living and my friends went on that journey with me — friends being songwriters — and I think I wrote 75 songs in like, a year. I mean, in like, the first four months I moved back.”

Despite the pain of the breakup, Lambert said the experience ultimately helped her develop as an artist.

“And it was kind of magical, because I really started growing my songwriting then. It wasn’t writing towards a specific record or a sound or a feisty or whatever. It was, like, raw emotion,” she explained.

“And I think I really grew as a vocalist and a songwriter, because I spent so much of my downtime with a guitar in my hand for the first time, you know?... And it was worth it. It was worth laying it out there,” she added.

Lambert and Shelton announced their divorce in June 2015.

“This is not the future we envisioned and it is with heavy hearts that we move forward separately,” the pair said in a joint statement. “We are real people, with real lives, with real families, friends and colleagues. Therefore, we kindly ask for privacy and compassion concerning this very personal matter.”

In the years since their split, both singers have moved on with new partners. Shelton married fellow musician Gwen Stefani in 2021.

Lambert also found love again. In February 2019, she announced that she had secretly married former New York City Police Department officer Brendan McLoughlin the previous month. The pair had begun dating just three weeks before their wedding.