It's safe to say that country music sensation Shania Twain's love story is anything but generic.
It's a story that involves all the ups and downs of a cinematic masterpiece.
Here's a look inside the marriage of one of country music's all-time biggest stars.
Twain, like so many celebrities before her who reached mega-fame,
craved time away from the spotlight. As she explained on The Ellen DeGeneres Show,
"I just really needed to take a break. Switzerland was just a place that I could go and be very
quiet. [...] And I became a mom. And it was just a great place to start that part of my life."
It was there that Twain met Frederic and Marie-Anne Thiebaud. On Oprah, Frederic dished,
"My ex-wife started to work for them, and that's how we got to know them."
Marie-Anne was Twain's assistant and managed Shania and her then-husband Robert "Mutt"
Lange's 46-room chateau in Switzerland, according to the Belfast Telegraph. Twain told DeGeneres,
"Fred and I did not have a one-on-one relationship at all.
It was quite a formal relationship, really."
The families grew close and generally spent
holidays together. As the singer explained on Oprah,
"Fred and Mutt were good friends, and Marie-Anne and I were good friends.
She was my confidant, somebody who understood what my concerns were in my marriage."
Twain added that she always trusted Marie-Anne's judgment, saying,
"I said, 'Marie-Anne, don't you think my husband is acting strange?'
And she said, 'No, I don't see anything strange.'"
When Thiebaud discovered his wife Marie-Anne was having an affair with Twain's husband Mutt,
he told Twain. And spoiler alert — it didn't go well. As Frederic revealed on Oprah,
"I did discover the affair with my wife and Mutt [...] and I said,
'Guys, now you have to tell [Shania].
This is ridiculous. You just owe her that.' And they didn't want to do it. So I had to tell her."
Then Frederic found phone bills and hotel receipts,
and recalled seeing lingerie and a garter belt in Marie-Anne's suitcase from one of her solo trips,
according to the Daily Mail. Twain admitted to being in denial
and wanted an explanation from Mutt and Marie-Anne. She told DeGeneres,
"I called her up. I wanted to give her the opportunity
to tell me herself without me accusing her. […] And she said,
'No. [...] I don't understand why you'd think I would ever hide anything from you.'"
Mutt and Marie-Anne denied having an affair. After Marie-Anne ignored
Twain's calls and changed her phone number, Twain emailed her, saying,
"Please leave us in peace. [...] If you could see me crying and suffering, maybe you would
have pity. Find love somewhere else, from someone else that isn't hurting two families so much."
Twain's story proves fame and wealth don't protect against adversity.
Specifically, the double whammy of discovering your hubby and your BFF
are off in cahoots without you — a bummer, to say the least. She explained to Oprah,
"Suffering does not discriminate. No one is above this type of low."
A broken Twain explained she'd basically given up on life, adding,
"There were days when I really just was like, [...] 'I just
don't even really care if tomorrow comes."
In addition to the nightmare she found herself in,
Twain noticed her anxiety negatively impacted her Lyme disease. She told the Belfast Telegraph,
"I lost my voice from Lyme disease. The stress of the divorce added to the dysphonia,
which is a tension around the larynx. The divorce is part of it, but it wasn't the root of it."
Twain was forced to undergo multiple throat surgeries
and feared that she'd lose the vocal cords that built her career. She told Today,
"It was devastating. I was very,
very sad about it, to the point where [...] I felt I had no other choice but to just accept it."
The invasive surgery did affect Twain's voice
but birthed a new "gravel" tone that she's enthusiastic about. She said,
"I think it's kind of sexy. [...] I'm never going to have my old voice again.
I'm okay with that. I've found a new voice. And I like it."
New love can be the furthest thing from your mind while dealing with severe heartbreak.
But, as Twain gushed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show,
an unexpected love blossomed out of a strenuous shared experience. She explained,
"We slowly became very, very good friends. We had many months of just trying to make
sense of everything. Holding each other up was a very difficult time emotionally for
both of us. [...] And really found something very beautiful in the end and unexpected."
Inspired by Thiebaud's calm composure,
the Canadian country singer said she gradually began to see him in a new light. She told Redbook,
"You see all their anger, how they handle their grief,
their desperation. And he did it beautifully and was able to give me
support at the same time. I admired him first. I think that's very important."
Of course, every woman has a laundry list of qualities she looks for in a life-mate.
In addition, sharing a life with someone who you can learn from and who inspires you to
be a better person also falls somewhere on the list under Swiss banking-account.
Luckily for Twain, Thiebaud had all the above!
Swiss-born Frederic Thiebaud is an executive for the food and beverage company Nestlé. Born on
August 1st, 1970, Thiebaud is five years younger than Twain. It's reported that Thiebaud even "fell
in love with music" as a kid and had aspirations of becoming a singer, according to Country Daily.
While Brad Pitt may not impress Twain much,
she knows the moment she realized she'd fallen for Thiebaud. She dished to Redbook,
"I got to observe Fred going through the same thing I was, and I admired how he handled
it. That is where I fell in love with him, because he was so exemplary in every way."
Twain even credits Thiebaud for being her, quote, "count to 10." She explained,
"Fred has shown me through example how to stop, listen, think, and then express myself,
instead of immediately saying things I might wind up regretting.
Trust me, that's hard for a girl who grew up cursing hockey refs."
Twain made her relationship official on her 44th birthday on August 29th,
2009, on her website. She wrote,
"A dear friend and true gentleman by the name of Fred, has been the most constant companion
of support for both Eja and me. And having gone through the suffering of his family splitting
apart at the same time under the same extreme circumstances, he understood me better than
anyone. We leaned on one another through the ups and downs, taking turns holding each other up.
We've become stronger and closer through it all, as have our children, Eja and Johanna."
According to People magazine, Thiebaud finally proposed the following year
with a three karat solitaire diamond ring. On Oprah, Twain's beau said,
"She's a true angel. That's what I think."
On January 1st, 2011, the pair married in Puerto Rico in an intimate ceremony.
Twain proudly told People,
"My closest friends and family say they haven't seen me this free-spirited and happy in years.
And it's true. It's definitely true."
In this love story, Twain and Thiebaud prove the honeymoon phase never has to end.
Twain gave fans a glimpse into her fairytale relationship when
she spoke about Thiebaud's romantic gestures to Redbook. She revealed,
"The other day I was showering, and he had to go out. He knew I hadn't eaten yet, and I had to go
somewhere too. So before he left, he prepared me a salad. I could hear chopping and singing,
and I'm thinking, What is he doing? I came out of the bathroom, and he'd set
up a little table with a note saying, 'I love you — Fred.' And there was a glass
of wine and this beautiful salad with little tomatoes and flowers all around the edges."
Prince Charming himself confessed the inspiration behind his romantic behavior, saying,
"To express my love, words are not enough. I'm more in love with her every day."
Chocolates and flowers aside,
Twain went on to tell Redbook about what drew her to him. She explained,
"Fred is not only nice, he's incredible. He's attentive. [...] He shows what he feels,
and that's a quality that could come in any shape or size and be
admired. [...] He's too good to be true. [...] I'm loving every minute of it."
The Canadian country singer may be one of the world's biggest stars,
but behind closed doors, Twain is just like anyone else when it
comes to enjoying romantic pastimes with her spouse. She told Redbook,
"Kissing, talking, playing tennis.
Fred hits hard and keeps me on my toes. I'd chase a ball for him any day."
And let's be honest, famous or not, no couple escapes cheesy nicknames.
The country singer admitted,
"We stare at each other a lot and call each other lovey names. I'm Sunshy,
short for Sunshine, and he's Beauty Man because he's so darn beautiful!"
Undoubtedly handsome, Twain said her hubby's eyes are his best physical feature. She added,
"They're gentle, intelligent, and alluring,
and such a beautiful shade of green. Fred's and Eja's eyes are exactly the same shade."
The songstress noted that Thiebaud's compassion
for others is what she loves most about her husband. She explained,
"Fred is a true gentleman. He waits for everyone else to begin eating before taking a bite.
He's always concerned about world affairs and the interests of others."
From chart-topping success and starting a family to losing it all and coming back stronger than
ever, Twain has come full-circle. Reflecting on her experience on Oprah, the artist revealed that
she believes life has a way of working out the way it's supposed to. She said,
"Sometimes I think bad things have to happen to us to give us perspective."
The "Honey, I'm Home" singer elaborated further during an
interview with the Belfast Telegraph, explaining,
"I had to meet this horrible betraying friend in order to meet this extraordinary man. And
I had to meet Mutt to have this child who is the absolute center of my life."
Twain revealed that over time, she was able to fully process
and understand the collapse of her marriage with Lange. She told Oprah,
"The fact that the marriage broke down is nobody's fault.
That is just a mutual breakdown of communication between two people."
And even though Twain admitted to being partially responsible for the fallout of her marriage, she's
grateful for the emotional evolution and strength it gave her. She told the Belfast Telegraph,
"I never thought it was entirely my fault. But I certainly felt that I obviously missed something.
Where have I been! Hello? How dumb can one be!
I just felt very stupid. [...] You put things in perspective over time."
Amidst new love and restrengthened vocal cords,
Twain set her sights on resurrecting her singing career. But it wasn't as
if she could just pick up from where she left off. She told the Belfast Telegraph,
"There were three albums and 15 years of our collaboration.
So the fear was [...] not knowing where to begin after all that time,
and knowing that the expectations would be high — because Mutt is a genius."
Twain revealed her doubts pioneering a new path, adding,
"There were a lot of moments when I was just too
afraid to tackle it. [...] Maybe I should just leave it where it was."
Ultimately, Twain decided her new material had to come from the heart, which produced a darker tone,
both vocally and lyrically. "Who's Gonna Be Your Girl?" are lyrics expressing the dark
and lonely crumbling of Twain's marriage. The singer explained to Rolling Stone,
"It's about feeling unappreciated and knowing that
you are secondary. Having to live with someone that has different priorities
and accepting that you're not the most important thing in a person's life."
Yikes. Meanwhile, "Swinging With My Eyes Closed," is a pretty self-explanatory track,
yet heart-wrenching, everything considered.
On September 29th, 2017, Twain released her fifth studio album
Now, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
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