The 'Wild Card' Up Miranda Lambert's Sleeve After Divorcing Blake Shelton Was Literal

In 2015, Miranda Lambert found herself at a crossroads in her life. She was going through a divorce from her former husband, Blake Shelton, and dealing with an onslaught of public scrutiny and affair rumors. Lambert has also said that, at the same time, she was having a difficult year career-wise, as a woman in the country music industry. While reflecting on the tumultuous period of her life during an interview with Us Weekly in 2024, Lambert remembered telling herself that she could get through this. The "Kerosene" singer got an actual wild card tattooed on her forearm, a depiction of the queen of hearts, as a reminder that she could turn any situation around in her favor.

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While talking to Us Weekly about her ink, Lambert said, "I went through some [tough] things, especially 2015 was a really hard year of being in this industry and being a woman." She and Shelton had just announced their divorce in July 2015, bringing their four years of marriage to an end. "I was like, 'I'm going to figure it out. I've got a wild card up my sleeve. I can do this,'" Lambert remembered thinking. "And so I got [the tattoo] [...] She's looking both ways to make sure that I don't get run over." Ever since then, Lambert has used her tattoos, much like song lyrics, to express her thoughts and feelings and hold on to important reminders. As tattoos have nearly doubled in popularity in the last five years, Lambert has also proclaimed herself as an official "tattoo person."

A few years after calling it quits with Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert met her next husband. While performing on "Good Morning America" in November 2018, Lambert met Brendan McLoughlin, a New York police officer working security for the event. It was Lambert's bandmates who noticed McLoughlin and thought their friend was "ready to hang out with someone," the country singer revealed in a 2019 profile for the New York Times. "They invited him to our show behind my back. They plucked him for me," she said. The rest was history for Lambert and McLoughlin, who tied the knot just a few months later in January 2019. Coincidentally, Lambert released her seventh studio album, "Wildcard," later the same year.

As for Shelton, he went on to marry his fellow coach on "The Voice," Gwen Stefani. Although there are definitely a few red flags in the Shelton-Stefani relationship, they seem happy. Shelton and Stefani officially began dating in late 2015, and by 2020, they were engaged. The two lovebirds had a country wedding in Oklahoma in July 2021, where the No Doubt singer joined the ranks of celebs who have stunned in a Vera Wang dress. Shelton has since become a stepfather to Stefani's three sons, Kingston, Zuma, and Apollo, whom she welcomed during her 12-year marriage to her first husband, Gavin Rossdale. After the curveballs fate threw at them, both Shelton and Lambert seem to have found happiness again, now far from one another.