Shania Twain believes her ex-husband deserves "empathy and understanding" after cheating on her

29 May 2024, 12:36

"Do I hate my ex-husband for making a mistake? No.". Picture: Getty/Alamy

By Thomas Edward

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She called the situation "the most painful shock of my life."

That was when Shania Twain discovered her ex-husband, producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, had been cheating on her.

Not only did she find out that he was having an affair, but it was with her best friend Marie-Anne Thiébaud.

The complicated history of how Shania Twain swapped husbands with best friend after ex cheated on her

In her memoir, From This Moment On, Shania revealed that she was "shell-shocked" and "was ready to die".

"For the first week after finding out about the affair, I was ready to die - to go to bed forever and never wake up. Or to hurt someone," she wrote.

"I was ready to do something desperate, but in reality, there was nothing to do but to suffer through it."

She suffered the pain of infidelity and deceit from two of the closest people in her life, with her marriage resulting in a distressing divorce.

Over the years, Shania has done plenty of healing, and in a recent interview has revealed that her ex-husband deserves "empathy and understanding" over the way he acted.

Shania was cheated on by her ex-husband Robert "Mutt" Lange for fifteen years. (Photo by Gareth Davies/Getty Images). Picture: Getty

Appearing on the Great Company podcast, the 'Queen of Country Pop' said that whilst she had not forgotten the pain "Mutt" put her through, she had come to a point of forgiveness.

"Forgiveness is in the family of letting go. But forgiveness, more specifically for me anyway, is not about forgetting necessarily," she told the host Jamie Laing.

"It's about understanding the other person, and that might mean that they're wrong."

"Maybe you believe forever that whatever they did was wrong. Or maybe you believe that... it's very hard to hate or not be able to forgive somebody that you believe 'He's a human being that deserves empathy and understanding'."

It's an incredibly compassionate and merciful thought process Shania has adopted, especially in regard to the amount of heartache that her ex-husband caused her throughout the affair.

Especially when you consider that Shania wrote one of her most popular songs, 'You're Still The One', about her relationship with Lange after the number of doubters people had about the legitimacy of their marriage.

But as it turned out, her then-husband and producer were having an affair by that time, having cheated on Shania from 1993 until they eventually divorced in 2008.

Shania Twain has taken the path of forgiveness when it comes to her ex-husband's cheating. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello). Picture: Alamy

Shania Twain bonded with Frederic Thiebaud after their partner's affairs, and eventually married themselves.(Credit: Judy Eddy/WENN.com). Picture: Alamy

In a bizarre twist of fate however, battling through her humiliating circumstances, she became close to Marie-Anne's husband Frédéric Thiébaud.

Only months after her divorce was finalised, the pair married themselves having struck up a bond from their collective heartache, and remained happily married to this day.

Finding true love herself amid the pain and heartache helped Shania heal naturally, she added in the podcast interview that she feels sad for Lange.

"So, do I hate my ex-husband for making a mistake? No. It's his mistake. Not my mistake," she said. "Sad for him that he made such a great mistake that he has to live with."