Shania Twain opens up about falling for husband after shared heartbreak

Shania Twain is looking back on one of the most difficult chapters of her life and how it unexpectedly led her to finding love again with her husband, Frédéric Thiébaud.

During an appearance on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, the 60-year-old country star reflected on the collapse of her first marriage after her then-husband, music producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, allegedly had an affair with her close friend and assistant, Marie-Anne Thiébaud.

Twain revealed that it was Frédéric—Marie-Anne's former husband who first told her about the alleged relationship.

"Fred takes the blinders off and tells me what's going on," she recalled. "I didn't believe him. I thought he was imagining it."

She eventually realized the situation was not going to change.

"So Fred and I both collapsed, and at some point we just had to let it go," Twain said, explaining that the two leaned on each other as they navigated the painful experience.

Their shared heartbreak gradually turned into a lasting romance.

"We found each other," she said. "When I accepted there was no hope, I discovered what a beautiful person he was."

Twain has previously spoken about the emotional toll the breakup took on her. In a 2020 interview with AARP, she admitted there were moments when she struggled to see a way forward.

"There were days I didn't really care if tomorrow came," she said at the time, adding that Frédéric helped her through one of the darkest periods of her life.

"Survival is everything," Twain said. "I found a way out."

Twain and Lange, who share son Eja, finalised their divorce in 2010 after 14 years of marriage. Later that year, she became engaged to Frédéric, and the couple married in Puerto Rico on New Year's Day in 2011.