Lambert and Shelton famously first clicked during a performance together at the CMT 100 Greatest Duets Concert in 2005. Although the “falling in love while singing” is a Hallmark-worthy love story premise, the reality was a little messier: at the time, Shelton was still married to Williams.
“I knew he was married,” Lambert said on Dateline in 2011, as reported by E! News. “I had seen their wedding pictures in Country Weekly. I knew better, like, ‘this is off-limits.'” E! also reported Shelton’s similar comments, from a VH1 Behind the Music special: “I’ve never had that kind of experience with anybody. I was a married guy, you know? Looking back on that, I was falling in love with her, right there on stage.”
After Shelton’s divorce was finalized in 2006, he and Lambert took a little while to take their relationship public. They married in 2011 after nearly six years together. “He said [his vows] like he meant it. He wasn’t stumbling around or being funny. And Miranda really cried,” Lambert’s mother told People. Still, their long-distance relationship (while Shelton filmed The Voice) took its toll, and eventually, they filed for divorce in 2015.
“This is not the future we envisioned,” their reps told Us Weekly at the time. “And it is with heavy hearts that we move forward separately. 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.”