Some stories you just don’t see coming and Gwen Stefani’s MAGA era is one them.

The former No Doubt singer recently voiced her support of the far-right commentator Tucker Carlson’s podcast, sounding alarm bells with many of her fans. Sharing a video from The Tucker Carlson Show where he is in conversation with the actor Jonathan Roumie on X, Stefani wrote, ‘Wow @JonathanRoumie, u r a powerful inspiration what an enlightening intelligent beautiful interview thank you for being u gx’ [sic].

During the episode, the pair discussed ‘the power of prayer and fasting’, Lent, ‘spiritual attacks’ and what it’s like being recognised in public. Roumie plays Jesus in the evangelist TV series The Chosen and appeared on the podcast to promote the Christian and Catholic prayer and meditation app, Hallow.

Carlson, however, is an undoubtedly controversial figure in the media who has been described as ‘perhaps the highest-profile proponent of Trumpism’ and ‘the most influential voice in right-wing media’. He believes, amongst other things, in the demographic replacement conspiracy theory which argues that the ‘political elite’ are deliberately increasing the number of minorities in a bid to displace the Christian white American population. He also has a ‘non-negotiable’ stance against a woman’s right to choose and last year he dismissed the link between climate change and the increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes, attributing it instead to a rise in abortions.

As such, Stefani’s fan base is understandably perturbed. ‘You honestly need a reality check, God this is heartbreaking,’ wrote one X user underneath her post. ‘Gwen is in her Trump era,’ reads another. While a third person articulately commented, ‘I love you but I hope you know your faith and Tucker Carlson’s platform full of hate are completely opposite of each other. Your voice influences many and in times of division and uncertainty, we shouldn’t promise those who invest so much in dividing us more.’

Stefani has always been open about her Catholic faith. She regularly attends Church with her sons and has posted about her piety on social media several times. Last November, she partnered with Hallow herself. The app costs $70 (£54) per year with a premium subscription and is pedalled by A-listers like Mark Wahlberg and Chris Pratt who are involved in the company too.

However, even if it was unwitting, Stefani’s recent endorsement of the app has also been read as an endorsement of Carlson. This has sparked both concern and disappointment because his views seem at odds with the public persona on which she built her career. As the frontwoman of No Doubt and an alternative pop icon for decades, Stefani built up a vast fan base in the LGBTQ+ community and has followers from minority groups around the world. While she has never been outwardly political – once saying everyone knows she’s ‘not a political science major. […] so why would I even talk about [politics]?’ – many of her fans comfortably assumed she was not a staunch Republican.

Even if her recent X post was only shared out of obligation to Hallow or her faith, to those fans, she has tarnished her reputation and left them with a lot of unsettling questions. ‘My Orange Country girl! MAGA,’ wrote one woman who clearly interpreted Stefani’s post as a sign of her support for Trump. ‘Thank you for standing up for your beliefs,’ wrote another. ‘This is still America, and you are free to choose!’.

Stefani has not yet elaborated on her comments or confirmed whether she is a Trump supporter or even a fan of Carlon’s podcast outside the context of his interview with Roumie – but fans are still suspicious.

Some have attributed her increasingly political social media presence to her marriage to the conservative country singer Blake Shelton, who she married in 2021. In a 2016 interview with Billboard, Shelton said of Trump, ‘Whether you love him or hate him, he says what he thinks, and he has proven that you don’t always have to be so afraid.’ Something women who have had their constitutional right to an abortion revoked or trans people who have had their gender forcibly changed on their passports might well disagree with.

‘Gwen Stefani seems like one of those girls who just completely absorbs and becomes whatever man she’s with,’ one X user suggested. ‘Eventually they’ll divorce, and she’ll have a ballad about how she lost who she was for him.’

With Stefani’s new album Bouquet Deluxe out on 14 March, which she describes as ‘music I listen to now’, they might have a while to wait for any ballads about her lost MAGA years. The album was recorded in Nashville, but she says it is ‘not a country record’ and is comprised of ‘70s pop rock songs. ‘It’s all the stuff I listened to in the station wagon on the way to church,’ she said. ‘Yacht rock, though it wasn’t called yacht rock then. The music I listen to now, I wanted this album to reflect that.’

Who knows what’s going on with Stefani’s politics at the moment, but if fans are looking for clues, then her foray into ‘yacht rock’ sounds like a good place to start.