Songfacts®:

• The songs on This Is What the Truth Feels Like were written by Gwen Stefani in the aftermath of the painful breakdown of her marriage to Gavin Rossdale and her newfound relationship with Blake Shelton. This ode to a new man finds Stefani singing of the rush and insecurities of starting a new relationship.
• Gwen Stefani penned the song with the songwriting duo of Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter (Justin Bieber's "Sorry," Selena Gomez's "Hands To Myself"). Speaking with Carson Daly, she spoke about the collaboration. "The moment I walked into the studio, I was like, 'Listen, I don't care about anything. I don't care about hits. All I want to do is just say the truth.'"
• The production was handled by the Swedish duo Mattman & Robin, shortly after they completed their work on Stefani's single "Make Me Like You."
• Justin Tranter is credited on every What the Truth Feels Like track. At times the experience of writing about the breakdown of Stefani's marriage was quite emotional process for him. He explained to Billboard magazine: "I definitely cried a couple of times, especially working on the title track, which we just called 'Truth.' It was tears of joy, but it also broke my heart [to see] the amount of pain she went through."
  
  "We wrote about getting to a place of fragile happiness and fear of hope," Tranter added. "It was beautifully devastating."