It's the age-old curse of success. You become a household name, people start digging around in your closet. So, although most country music fans are aware (and have been for many years) that power couple Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert met while Shelton was still married to his first wife--the tabloids have finally decided to exploit this bit of info.
In fact, even the primo scandal-seeker of them all, the National Enquirer, has picked up on the story--making it into a bit of a sordid tale on how Shelton is letting his ex-wife Kaynette suffer in poverty while he rolls in his millions.
In the article, Shelton is accused of "taking cheap shots" at his ex. In reality, what he said was that the divorce itself was the worst experience of his life--I'm not sure I'd count that as exactly trashing Kaynette. I mean, is divorce ever pleasant?
Also, the first Mrs. Shelton is tracked down and found "barely scraping by" as a schoolteacher in Kansas. However, she herself doesn't seem to have overly harsh words for her ex-husband. I'm sure she isn't hanging up the magazine covers of the Shelton-Lambert wedding on her refrigerator or anything, but she's hardly acting like Eddie Cibrian's ex-wife.
Lambert herself seems to have taken this whole renewed-gossip thing seriously. During an appearance on Dateline Monday night, she addressed the fact that she knew Shelton was married when she met him in 2005, but that she initally had no intentions of messing around in that arena.
"My parents are private investigators for God's sake," she explained. "I've seen this my whole life--affairs. Of all people to know better, I know better than this."
Lambert went on to discuss the fact that she did feel a natural draw to Shelton, but "didn't know what to do with it." All she knew was that he was, for the time being anyway, "off limits."
Shelton's divorce became final in 2006, so there was obviously some overlap as a married man when he actually began dating Lambert. However, just like any marriage, nobody on the outside knows what was going on behind closed doors.
My opinion on the matter is (and has always been) that Shelton--like many other people out there--married fairly young, figured out quickly it wasn't working (the couple was only married barely three years), and happened to meet someone else toward the end of his failing marriage. Sounds like Lambert was astute about the reality of the situation, and they still ended up together.
Additionally, Shelton's ex has been silent all these years and doesn't seem to be particularly vitriolic even now.
Hardly a scandalous story. It's simple and obvious that because the two are now cross-genre famous that the media is digging for gold.
What do you think of Lambert's confession on Dateline? Be sure to let me know your thoughts.
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