Shania Twain exemplifies the power of forgiveness.
The 58-year-old singer recently disclosed that she found it in her heart to forgive her ex-husband, Robert "Mutt" Lange, for his 2008 affair with her close friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud. As of 2023, Lange and Marie-Anne were still together and Twain has been married to Marie Anne's ex-husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, since 2011.
During an interview on the Great Company With Jamie Laing podcast this week, Shania shared her thoughts on forgiveness and her personal journey through betrayal, illness and family trauma. The "That Don’t Impress Me Much" singer offered a glimpse into her complex feelings towards her ex-husband and her challenging past.
Despite his high-profile work with artists like Celine Dion and AC/DC, Robert has kept a low profile since their 2008 divorce. Reflecting on the betrayal, Shania revealed she doesn’t harbor hatred towards Robert, 75.
Shania Twain and Robert Mutt Lange
Shania emphasized that forgiveness for her is about letting go and understanding the other person, even if their actions were wrong. "Forgiveness is in the family of letting go. But forgiveness, more specifically for me anyway, is not about forgetting necessarily," said Shania, who shares a 22-year-old son, Eja, with her ex.
The singer's capacity for forgiveness extends to recognizing the long-term impacts of others' mistakes. "Do I hate my ex-husband for making a mistake? No. It's his mistake, not my mistake," she explained. "So sad for him that he made such a great mistake that he has to live with. And I don’t know what that is, but it’s not… That’s not my weight."
Shania's personal life took another twist when she married Frédéric, Marie-Anne's ex-husband, in 2011. Her ability to navigate these emotional complexities speaks to her resilience.
Frederic Thiebaud and Shania Twain
In March 2023, Shania offered a rare update on Robert. Shania told Armchair Expert host Dax Shepard that Robert and Marie-Anne are still together, though she and her ex only ever communicate about their son, Eja.
"Mutt and I parent well together, for people who don’t talk to each other," Shania 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. … I think everyone gets what they deserve. … I got what I deserve -- I got the greatest man on the planet."
Shania added that her marriage to Frédéric is "not embarrassing," emphasizing that she did not get close to him until long after both learned about their exes' cheating.
"We didn’t have each other's numbers," she said. "He was not really part of our daily lives because he's 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. And then 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."
Shania said the two were first drawn to one another because they were forced to navigate identical difficult situations. "He was so thoughtful about it all," she said. "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."
Having a friend to help reassure her through the healing process proved invaluable, Shania said. "Fred's so smart," she added. "This is one of the smartest people I know [and] he didn't know either. 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. 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**king lie, like, right to my f**king 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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