I was watching the livestream of No Doubt’s Coachella set and reminiscing on the good ol times, thinking of the songs Gwen wrote about Gavin Rossdale and their on-and-off relationship and then the trainwreck marriage (spoiler alert: he cheated on her with their baby sitter) and of course, I had to look at their synastry. And let me tell you, it is something.
Let’s look at Gavin’s chart first and see what we’re working with.
His chart is of a successful person first and foremost. A Scorpio stellium and rising gives allure and clout – paired with a Sun in a trine with exalted Jupiter in the 9th, that combination will sooner or later bring a lot of accomplishments. A flowing aspect like this brings optimism and lucky events in the person’s life and the planet of grandiose and expansion in the house of achievements just strenghtens that. His ascendant ruler, Mars gives him some traits of brattiness, being in the loud and fiery Sagittarius. Right next to it is Venus – both yin and yang planets coming together endowed him with a huge charisma. The downfall is, that conjunction is closely squared by Uranus and Pluto, which can give not only sudden changes of the heart but also excessive secrecy, push-and-pull dynamic in relationships and someone who generally may like to play the field, especially given the mutable traits of Sagittarius. It is even more pronounced because Venus rules his 7th house of relationships.
His 5th house of romance and sex suffers as well, having both malefic Saturn and wounded Chiron in it. The ruler is that Jupiter in Cancer but its retrograde notion can bring some hiccups along the way.
Capricorn Moon in detriment may also carry some trauma surrounding parental figures that has a potential to repeat family mistakes and what google just told me is that his parents were married three times. Talk about troubled relationships.
But Moon in itself signifies women in his life, as well as his partner. The luminary is trined by that Uranus-Pluto conjunction, which definitely speaks of him having many admirers. This gives him even more charm. This is definitely a chart of a rebellious heartbreaker.
And then we have Gwen. Her chart is also very success-friendly with a Libra stellium in her 10th house of career and exalted Mars on the ascendant that blessed her with powerful personality that stands out. Capricorn ascendant brings slow rise to success but also hardships in life and its ruler, Saturn is retrograde in the 5th house (both of them have that placement in the 5th, which is interesting) – this makes her focused on creativity and her kids but the retrograde motion brought a lot of issues with her breaking through is her younger years. Mind you, No Doubt’s real rise to fame happened during Gwen’s Saturn return (and yes, that’s where the album name “Return of Saturn” came from; also, side note, she learnt about it through Gavin himself).
Gwen has a lovely domicile Moon in her 7th house, which should bring prosperity in relationships – and we gotta admit all of her relationships were long-term. Unfortunately that Moon is tightly squared by Jupiter, which talks about possible naivety and legal issues – that can hint at things like divorces. Moon in a square with the Sun and Mars can also signify severing and distance from a male figure in your life, which can very much be a life partner. What isn’t helpful is also fallen Venus in Virgo, which can bring a troubled love life.
Okay so let’s get into the synastry
The first thing that comes forward is their Moons being opposite. Gavin’s Moon is right on Gwen’s ascendant, which probably made them gravitate to each other in the first place as Moon touching someone’s ascendant can act like a glue. This also underlines his changeability towards her – the Moon comes and goes, it’s moody. Of course, Moon oppositions can be lovely as they may compliment each other and probably at some points in their relationship it was like that. But these Moons don’t have much of a support from other planets aside from her Moon trining his Saturn and Chiron, which can definitely act like a glue between two people and the need to build a life together. It’s not really an affectionate aspect, but it’s binding and full of care.
Now if you look at synastry, what you should pay attention to is recurring aspects. Because they have Moon oppositions and because Gwen has a natal Moon-Sun/Jupiter square, what that results in is that his Moon also squares her Sun-Jupiter conjunction. This just adds to the fuel and makes the negative aspect more potent as it’s an aspect of a separation.
The other tight opposition we have here is his Sun with her Saturn. That is… not the best. And again, thse planets don’t really receive any other strong flowing aspects. The Sun-Saturn opposition is extra tough because Saturn already has a distancing attitude towards everything. Put it against the Sun, that’s two leadership-hungry planets having a constant fight. It also brings possible disappointments, resentment and cold treatment as well as suspiciousness on the side of the Saturn person.
I’ve mentioned Gwen having a square to Jupiter, which can bring legal issues. Here Gavin’s Jupiter is tightly squaring Gwen’s Mercury – this just reinforces that and also brings conflict between their worldviews, thinking patterns and day-to-day tasks. An aspect like this can make one of the pertners too permissive or full of neglect. Heated arguments or heavy debates can arise with it as well.
Aside from the mentioned Moon on the ascendant, a pretty cosy aspect, Mercury-Neptune can bring some dreaminess to the relationship as well. This is also a great thing to have as an artist as you can be each other’s muses. On the flipside, whenever we search for deception, Neptune is where we point at. And conjunctions with a planet like this can go both ways. In this case, it’s Gavin’s Neptune that was pulling wool over her eyes.
And if we think of infidelity, we look at the 12th house because it rules all things hidden from us. In this case, they both have planets in each other’s 12th houses. Gavin has his Venus and Mars in Gwen’s 12th house – these two planets placed like this can definitely point to romance behind your back. And then her Libra stellium is in his 12th house, which can show neglect and not seeing her – especially her Sun, which, as a luminary, definitely wants to always be seen.
“The most gorgeously jealous kind of ex-girl”
I accidentally found a scan of an old article about the pair from 2002 where Gwen discusses how jealous she can get over Gavin. She justified it with the fact that he’s a desirable frontman followed by a swarm of groupies. I mean, the assumption here might be reasonable but shouldn’t be the case if your partner assures you of their loyalty by their actions and such. So, where do I sniff jealousy and the lack of trust?
First, we may go back to the 12th house overlays situation. Rossdale’s Venus and Mars are both in her 12th house so she had a constant feeling of something happening behind her back and because of the nature of these planets, that something is related to other women and romance.
Gwen’s Jupiter in a square to his Moon might bring a few things: being overly permissive (“somehow I’m full of forgiveness”, as she sang in a No Doubt song), having issues just getting along sometimes, bad spending habits and, again, divorce and court disputes. And speaking of his Moon, it is not a tight conjunction but the luminary is very sensitive: Gwen’s Mars touches it with a 7° orb. A Moon-Mars aspects in synastry, especially conjunctions can make Mars very protective but also very possessive over the Moon. Especially that her Mars makes natal squares to her planets, which makes it kinda competitive in nature. Gwen’s Venus in a square to Gavin’s Mars is a spicy, alluring aspect but it can definitely bring out some jealous feelings as well – more so from Mars’ side but it can go both ways.
My favorite part: timing
The pair met for the first time in April of 1995 (might’ve been April 11th but I’m not sure) when transiting Jupiter was in the middle of Sagittarius. For Gavin it was directly touching his Venus and Mars, for Gwen – it was sextiling her natal Jupiter exact. Jupiter transits can definitely bring a new partner in a person’s life, especially one that might be seen as a blessing or a lucky coincidence. They also usually point to long-term partnerships. Interestingly, the ascendant in their Davidson chart is right around the middle degrees of Sagittarius as well.
Spiler alert: Jupiter themes will show up again.
They married on September 14th 2002 with Moon conjunct Chiron in the sign of Capricorn as well as a tight Jupiter-Neptune opposition. The big benefic was transiting through the sign of Leo, making a trine to the Jupiter in Sagittarius that took place when they met and started dating: this means both of them received positive Jupiter transits around the wedding day but it also gives us a clue that Jupiter cycles play a huge role in their relationship (aka they had their relationship milestones when the planet was going through fire signs).
The couple fired for divorce in August of 2015. Now, if you’ve been paying attention and you know math, you’d know that this is not only a full Jupiter cycle gone but also… *drum roll* Venus retrograde period in Leo!
Their wedding lasted a whole Jupiter cycle, which is pretty common given Jupiter rules legal matters. And their Davidson chart? Has Jupiter in Leo. It was of course also marked by the Venus retrograde. To be more impactful, Stefani was going through a Venus-ruled profection year.
Transit-wise, Gavin was just at the tail end of Saturn transiting his 1st house, while for Gwen, it was a Saturn opposition.
During the divorce, as Jupiter was moving over Gwen’s Venus, she started getting closer to Blake Sheldon and the couple began dating in November of the same year. They’re now married.