Gossip history: Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani’s marriage fell apart in the summer of 2015 and the immediate rumors involved Gwen being sick of his cheating, specifically his alleged years-long affair with their children’s nanny. While Gavin never publicly admitted to bangin’ the nanny, Gwen made it pretty clear at the time that she had learned something which shook her to her core and did irreparable harm to their marriage. Within a few months, Gwen moved on quickly with Blake Shelton and the rest is history – Blake loves her sons fiercely and Gwen is (in my opinion) a million times happier with Blake than she ever was with Gavin. The only one salty about any of this is Gavin. For years, there have been occasional reports that Gavin hates that his sons adore Blake, and Gavin doesn’t appreciate the fact that Gwen and the boys spend so much time in Oklahoma. Their divorce was not a happy “conscious uncoupling” where everyone gets along for the sake of the kids. There’s bitterness there, and it’s on Gavin’s side. Speaking of:

Gavin Rossdale wishes he had “more of a connection” with ex-wife Gwen Stefani. The Bush frontman, who shares three kids with the “Rich Girl” songstress, said in a new interview that he felt “handcuffed” because he didn’t want to “say anything negative” about his ex.

“I never thought I’d ever get divorced. So there’s a simple shame in my life,” Rossdale, 58, said on Wednesday’s episode of the “Amy & T.J.” podcast with Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes. “I feel bad for my kids, that’s it,” he went on, noting that both of his parents had been married three times and he never wanted his kids to have a similar experience.

“I wish I could have found a way to not have that in their lives. It wasn’t fun for me to come from a broken home. It can be quite debilitating for kids … the overriding things is you don’t want to let your kids down,” he said of sons Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 10.

The British hitmaker, who wed Stefani, 54, in 2002, split from her in 2015 amid rumors he cheated on her with their nanny.

“The biggest thing would be when you see the kids that sometimes there’s a loss. It’d be nice if there was more of a connection with the person who made them with me,” Rossdale added, without naming the No Doubt singer directly.

“I go to a lot of events where there’s ‘the other team,’ so to speak, and I just feel really proud of myself in my consistency as a father. I know in my heart that I’m super consistent,” Rossdale said, seemingly referencing Stefani and Shelton, 47.

He went on to describe their “debilitating” divorce as a “very contentious, hugely emotional, flared-up situation.”

“Less said, soonest mended and I said nothing,” he went on. “I’m handcuffed because I would never want to overly say anything negative about [my sons’] mom. That’s just not right.”

He added, “I think that there’s no accidents in life so you are where you’re meant to be. So I don’t live in regret … life just unfolds how it should.”

[From Page Six]

The undercurrent of this seems to be “how could SHE leave ME” with a heavy dash of “why is she so much happier with HIM?” I’ll be generous to Gavin – apart from the alleged nanny-banging, no one ever accused him of being a bad father. He loves his kids and wants to be a big part of their lives and that’s nice. But Gavin’s complaints about his divorce and how there’s still some acrimony between him and Gwen… like, you’re not the victim here. She never would have divorced you if you weren’t f–king around so much. What really bugs me the most is that he’s positioning himself as the more mature one – “Less said, soonest mended and I said nothing.” GMAFB.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.