Shania Twain Was 'Uncontrollably Fragile' After Husband's Affair, Says She Still Doesn't Speak to Ex
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Nicky J Sims/Getty Images Shania Twain
Shania Twain is opening up about the heartbreak she endured after her divorce.
The "You're Still The One" singer and Robert "Mutt" Lange ended their marriage in 2008 after 14 years, when Twain learned of Lange's affair with her close friend Marie-Anne Thiébaud.
"I don't think that a lot of things that happened to me since my divorce should have been so hard on me," said Twain, 57, as she reflected on her shocking split while on the Armchair Expert podcast last month. "I should have been less naive about life's ups and downs. Maybe I'm too much, like, 'That's all behind me.' "
More than a decade later, Twain said the fallout is "not embarrassing."
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Joshua Sammer/Getty Images Frédéric Thiébaud and Shania Twain
After finalizing her divorce in 2010, Twain and Marie-Anne's husband, former Nestlé exec Frédéric Thiébaud, commiserated over their shared heartbreak and married on New Year's Day 2011.
She told host Dax Shepard that she and her now husband had no romantic connection when they were married to their respective partners.
"I did not get close to Fred at all, we didn't have each other's numbers," said Twain. "He was not really part of our daily lives because he was working these crazy hours. A lot of travel [for his] very high-profile company, just suit and tie and so he would be around, like, weekend dinners and stuff like that — we would all eat together and that was it."
She added that Frédéric and Mutt had more interactions with one another.
"It would be mostly him and Mutt chatting, so I didn't really know Fred very well. I guess it was a beautiful surprise to then see how gracefully and graciously he was dealing with navigating the same pain."
The Grammy-winning songstress said Frédéric handled the news of the affair much better than she did at the time.
"He was so thoughtful about it all… It was not cool with him, but he was smarter about it. I was uncontrollably fragile over it, which I had never felt before ever because I thought for once I was stable. I really believe that I'm safe, so that really devastated me I think more than any other instability I've ever felt."
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Though Twain said the affair made her feel "stupid," Frédéric experiencing it with her softened the blow.
"Fred's so smart. This is one of the smartest people I know, he didn't know either," said Twain. "That helped me feel better… Neither of us saw it coming … I allowed myself to trust too much … I did let my guard down too much."
Getting to the root of her frustration, the "From This Moment On" singer said, "I was angry, though. The anger comes a lot from my childhood too because I'm thinking, 'Man, you can do anything to me, but if you f---ing lie, like, right to my f---ing face? Now, I'm so angry.' It wasn't just, 'Infidelity happens.' That was not me. I spun around in that for quite a while. That was the hardest part to let go of really — the anger."
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As for mending her relationship with Mutt, who is still with Marie-Anne, Twain said they don't speak about anything other than their son Eja, now 21.
"Mutt and I parent well together — for people who don't talk to each other," she said. "We'll just text. We both love our son so much, so we don't play any games like that. We have the same priority, we share spaces for him. No nonsense there."
Ending on a pointed note, Twain said, "I think everyone gets what they deserve … I got what I deserve, I got the greatest man on the planet."
