Gwen Stefani has dyslexia

15 December 2020

Gwen Stefani "discovered" she has dyslexia after her children were diagnosed with the learning disorder.

Gwen Stefani

The 51-year-old singer - who has Kingston, 14, Zuma, 12, and six-year-old Apollo with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale - only realised the extent of her own difficulties when all three of her kids had problems reading.

Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music, she said: "One thing that I've discovered through having kids is that I have dyslexia — everyone has things that happen and mine was that. And I feel like a lot of the problems that I have had or even decisions that I've made for myself stem from that, because now the children — obviously, it's all genetic — they have some of those issues.

"But now they get all these benefits. They have these incredible teachers and schools and they don't have to have shame about it. They understand that their brain functions in a different way. All of our brains do, you know what I mean?"

The 'Let Me Reintroduce Myself' singer recalled how she "failed at school" because she couldn't keep up with her classmates.

She said: "I was a good girl. I didn't do any bad stuff. It was just really hard for me to function in that square box of school that everybody was supposed to be understanding. And my brain didn't work like that; it still doesn't. But it works in different ways that are probably a gift that other people can't do."

And Gwen - who is engaged to Blake Shelton - has now realised that her dyslexia affected her confidence in the early years of No Doubt.

She said: "At that time I had written that whole record not even knowing how to write a song and I had literally laid my entire life out for everyone to hear. And then I'm still in the band with Tony [Kanal] who I was so dependent on, because of probably my dyslexia.

" I didn't know any of this until now, but I think that I didn't have any confidence in myself, at the time, but when I would write a song or I would get on stage, it just felt so right and the only thing that was going right for me."