Though it’s been nearly four years since Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani started dating, the country singer, 43, is still in disbelief that he even snatched the 50-year-old pop star in the first place. In fact, he finds it more surprising that they ended up together over him receiving the title for People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2017.

“If you thought the People magazine cover was shocking, mine and Gwen’s relationship is probably the biggest head-scratcher,” he told Martina McBride on her “Vocal Point” podcast, which went live on Friday, October 25.

Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton During Their Getaway
Courtesy of Gwen Stefani/Instagram

Though Gwen and Blake met in 2014 when she had just joined The Voice as a mentor, the two didn’t become close until her second season on the show in 2015. This partially had to do with the fact that the “Hollaback Girl” singer was very focused on being a new mom to her third child, Apollo, whom she shares with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale.

“I’ll even say that she was, of all the coaches, the least that I had gotten to know the first season she was on the show because she had just had a baby, and I mean just had a baby,” Blake revealed. “And so any time there was downtime, she was busy. She was gone, she was on her trailers, she was taking care of the baby, you know, and there was never those moments that usually happen on this show, where at the end of the day we’re sitting around out here at the couches and having a drink, talking, laughing.” At the time, Blake was still married to Miranda Lambert, but that changed shortly.

2015 was a pretty eventful year for the current couple. In July 2015, Blake and Miranda announced their split. In the following month, Gwen and Gavin filed for divorce. And finally, by November 2015, Gwen and Blake were an item.

Considering Gwen and Blake went through similar situations, they formed a strong connection, which started out as a friendship, but then became more. “A lot of life had happened and we’d been through a lot, and we bonded actually over that,” Blake continued. “And it’s one of those things that, who knows? It had to have been meant to be.” How sweet!