Why is Blake Shelton leaving The Voice season 23?
The country singer is stepping away from the spinning chairs after 12 years.
Blake Shelton has stepped away from The Voice after 12 years as a judge on the NBC singing show.
The star joined the competition series in 2011 and was one of the four original Voice coaches alongside Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and CeeLo Green, all of whom left the show after a few seasons apart from Shelton, who stayed on for more than a decade.
However, Shelton's final episode of The Voice aired on Monday night (6th March 2023).
If you're wondering what the reasons were behind his departure, read on for everything you need to know.
Why is Blake Shelton leaving The Voice season 23?
Shelton is stepping back as a coach on The Voice in order to spend more time with his wife Gwen Stefani, who he met while coaching on the show in 2014, and his family.
"I think being a stepdad has changed my perspective in that I’m not the first person that I think about anymore," he told Access. "Even to the smallest little things when you go, ‘I think I’ll do this,’ the very next thought is always, ‘Well, wait a minute. How’s that going work?' Or, 'What will they think?' Or, 'How will that affect a schedule?'
"I think the only way for me to really do that right is to step away from being committed to something like The Voice that demands a lot of your time. There’s no way around it. If you’re going to do it and do it right, you have to be 150 per cent in. And I just feel like those days are behind me for now. I got a more important job."
Speaking about his time on The Voice, the God's Country singer added: "I met my wife at The Voice, which is the greatest thing that I'll take away. It completely changed my career and my trajectory, I was a country artist that was having some hits on the radio and having some success, things were going great.
"But to step into that role in The Voice right when it was taking off, and being a part of that, it just took my career to another level, that I didn't even know was possible for me, and it completely changed my life in that way too."
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