It seems that time really does heal all… at least for Shania Twain.
The country music legend is an icon even beyond the genre, and she’s done it all and has had an incredible career, and she’s not slowing down anytime soon… Shania of course perfected the pop country sound of the 90s with hits like “You’re Still The One,” “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” “From This Moment On,” “Any Man of Mine” and many, many more. She saw unprecedented crossover success, a defining attribute of her career, and she ultimately became the first artist to ever release three consecutive Diamond-certified albums.
Twain is gearing up to release a new album called Little Miss Twain on July 24th, and ahead of the new project coming out, she spoke with The Times for a lengthy feature, where she spoke a lot about growing up very poor in Canada and everything she’s accomplished as an artist.
And she also opened up about her marriage to producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, whom she wed in April of 1993. He heard her first album and knew he wanted to work with her (he’d previously worked with the likes of AC/DC and Def Leppard), and they continued to work together even after they got married.
Eventually, in the late 90’s the couple moved to Switzerland (where Twain still primarily lives), and she explained that living on the shores of Lake Geneva was “somewhere I could forget who I was,” adding that they were happy to be alone for long periods of time and not see anyone else:
“We were both very happy to be alone for weeks and weeks on end and not see anybody else. We just thought that was perfectly normal.’
They share one child together, their son, Eja D’Angelo Lange (he was born in 2001), and I think most fans know the story of how the marriage ended…
Shania had hired a personal assistant in Switzerland named Marie-Anne Thiébaud, who become one of her closest friends. But apparently, she got a little too close with the family, and Thiébaud and Lange had an affair, and he and Twain divorced in 2008.
Of course, she was heartbroken, and she explained that there was a point where it got so bad, she wanted to die. But as time as gone on, and everyone has moved on, Shania says she has let go all of the ill will towards her ex, and she says it’s a weight of “hate and anger” she wouldn’t “wish on anyone”:
“Oh definitely. I’ve always been pretty good at letting go of things and moving on, but some things are a little harder to move on from than others. I would never dare say to anybody, ‘Get over it.’
But the burden that we carry, the weight of hate and anger is so great and I don’t wish it on anyone. It’s a terrible burden to carry around.”
And the story does have a happy ending, as fans also know that Shania ended up marrying Marie-Anne’s ex-husband, Swiss businessman Frédéric Thiébaud, who she confided in as they were both heartbroken following the news of the affair coming out.
They got married in in 2011, and they now live between Switzerland and the Bahamas (and she has other homes in Las Vegas and Canada) with her husband. Shania says that even as she’s struggled to accept the aging process and who she is after going through menopause, Frédéric thinks she’s “the hottest woman on the planet,” and the best at everything she does, and that has given her an incredible confidence to embrace everything about who she is as a woman:
“Honestly, through the eyes of Fred, I am the hottest woman on the planet. To Fred, I’m the best cook, best mom, best wife and I feel the same about him. I don’t want to be without that, I don’t want to be without that person. With Fred, I can just be with Fred.”
It’s really a wild story, and as far as I know, Mutt and Marie-Anne are still together, as well.
It was a wild and very convoluted way they all ended up together, but it sounds like everyone is happy now and Shania is also gearing up to put out a new album Little Miss Twain on July 24th:
