As Shania Twain enters into a new chapter in her career, which will include the release of her new album Queen of Me and a major tour, she’s looking back on the heartbreak and betrayal she’s endured in the past. In a new cover story with People, Twain revisited her divorce from her former producer and husband of 14 years, Robert “Mutt” Lange.
Twain and Lange split in 2008 when it was revealed he was having an affair with her good friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud. The singer calls the moment a “very low period in my life,” but she soon found love with an unexpected partner. After her divorce, Twain grew close to Marie-Anne’s husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, as they bonded over their heartbreak. They were married on New Year’s Day 2011.
“That is a really strong bond that builds over time, that is rare, that you don’t have in every relationship if you don’t have those deep scars in common,” Twain says of her relationship. “We were a big part of each other’s healing.”
Twain says she didn’t see herself ever remarrying, but the connection with Thiébaud was simply meant to be.
“When I got divorced I said, ‘I’m never getting married again,'” she says. “I was definitely one of those people that could have written a million songs about, ‘I’m never going to fall in love again.’ But Fred was such an undeniable love.”
As for her relationship with her former husband, Twains says they’re in a “good place.” The singer and Lange worked together on much of her early music, and although they don’t collaborate any longer, they share an engineer and she occasionally records at his studio. Most of all, Twain has found forgiveness for her former husband and has been able to move on peacefully.
“I found peace a long time ago, and maybe peace is forgiveness, you know?” Twain says. “I’m able to have more appreciation for him again, not for what happened in our marriage but for all that he contributed to such a great part of my career and my life. We have a beautiful child from it. The resentment is gone.”
“I was coming out of a dark place… now I’m on the other side of that,” she adds.
Twain will release her sixth studio album, Queen of Me, on Feb. 3. She will kick off her major, headlining Queen of Me tour on April 28 in Spokane, Wash.