NEW YORK (AFP) Singer Gwen Stefani has filed for divorce from rockstar husband Gavin Rossdale after 13 years of marriage, several news reports said on Monday.

In her divorce petition, Stefani, 45, cited irreconcilable differences and asked for joint custody of the couple's three children, according to celebrity websites TMZ and People.com said.

Rossdale, 49, filed his response at the same time and also asked for joint custody, TMZ reported.

"While the two of us have come to the mutual decision that we will no longer be partners in marriage, we remain partners in parenthood and are committed to jointly raising our three sons in a happy and healthy environment," the couple told the website in a statement.

Neither Stefani nor Rossdale's attorneys immediately responded to emails seeking comment.

Stefani, who with No Doubt brought new mainstream popularity to ska music in the 1990s, met Rossdale when touring with Bush, the British band whose style of alternative rock won over a particularly large audience in the United States.

In a 2010 interview with Details magazine, Rossdale said he "threw a party in New Orleans just as an excuse to hang out with her" during the tour and that the two spent a tipsy night strolling the French Quarter.

The couple married in 2002. Raising three sons in the Los Angeles area, the couple generally managed to avoid the media spotlight.

An exception came in 2004 when a paternity test revealed that Rossdale was the father of a daughter with British designer Pearl Lowe, with whom he had an earlier relationship.

Rossdale has also acknowledged a brief same-sex fling as a teenager with the singer Marilyn after Boy George revealed the relationship.