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Gwen Stefani's sweet life
From pop-punk queen to fashion icon and celebrity mom, Gwen Stefani has forged a one-woman empire.
By Kerry Potter
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Gwen Stefani knows how to make an entrance. The 37-year-old multi-million-selling rock star and fashion icon walks into the room wearing tight indigo Stella McCartney jeans, a blue cashmere jumper from her clothing line L.A.M.B. and black lace-up Alexander McQueen stiletto boots. Her hair is artfully piled high, her face is punctuated with the neatest eyebrows ever, and she's wearing a slash of sheer red lipgloss. An unashamed grooming fanatic, she is one celebrity that you will never see photographed without makeup, looking tipsy or buying a litre of milk in her PJs. "If you're going out of the house, it's better to realize that you're probably going to have your picture taken, get ready properly and think 'Well, it's just part of my life,'" she says, helping herself to a bottle of water before sitting demurely on the sofa. "Even if I'm not getting my picture taken, I've always enjoyed the process of getting ready. I have a high tolerance for sitting in the makeup chair. I'm the kind of person who spends most of my time getting ready for a party and then leaving within half an hour because I'm bored!"
The arrival of Kingston
It's a good job that Stefani is so Zen about those prying lenses because her pregnancy and the subsequent arrival of her son, Kingston, last May were the source of a million paparazzi shots. "It was weird being pregnant in a fishbowl situation -- especially on the days when you feel really fat and disgusting and not cute," she says. "Pregnancy was challenging in a way I didn't expect. I was on tour and I was so sick -- it was like PMS times a million." Of course, we don't like our celebrities to be fat -- baby belly or no baby belly. Stefani admits that she felt this pressure. "I worked out with my trainer throughout the whole pregnancy until about two weeks before," she says. "I cried during my last session. I was like, 'I can't breathe. I can't do this anymore. What am I doing?' It was crazy. All my life, I've had to work hard to stay in shape -- I've always struggled with it. I was a little chubby when I was younger and I didn't want to be that person forever. I became a swimmer at school -- but only because I wanted to be skinnier! I'm extremely vain -- I like wearing cute clothes!" On cue, her sweater rides up an inch or two to reveal abs that would give David Beckham a run for his money. Now, a year after giving birth, Stefani looks so toned and healthy, it hurts. How did she do it? Boring, old-fashioned hard work, she reveals. "There aren't any tricks," she says. "It's simple math: you put this much food in, you burn that much working out. I worked out with my trainer five days a week, with weekends off. I would really recommend doing weights. I'm not into yoga or pilates -- they don't work for me, and I don't have the patience. I'm more like a man: I like going to the gym and lifting weights or doing a little boxing."
Stefani also got back into a healthy eating regimen thanks to her mom, Patti, and her dad, Dennis. "Gavin [Rossdale, former singer with the rock band Bush and current singer and guitarist with Institute] was away working, so my parents came to stay with me and Kingston and we all ate healthily together," she says. "It's great once you start seeing results -- like when I could actually fit into my big sweatpants again! And I had three L.A.M.B. collections sitting in my closet saying 'Wear me, wear me!'"
Image courtesy of Lester Cohen/WireImage.com
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