Shania Twain ‘Panicked’ After Finding out About Former Husband Mutt Lange’s Affair

As Shania Twain‘s career continued to soar, her personal life hit an all-time low in 2008, when she found out her husband, Mutt Lange, was having an affair with her best friend and personal assistant, Marie-Anne Thiébaud. Twain was stunned by the news, and admits she spiraled into a dark place while dealing with the end of her marriage.

“Survival is everything,” Twain told AARP (via PEOPLE). “I was in quicksand. I panicked, like everybody does, but I didn’t surrender. I found a way out.”

Part of her way out included confiding in Thiébaud husband, Frédéric, unaware that as they relied on each other, they would also fall in love.

“There were days I didn’t really care if tomorrow came,” Twain acknowledged, adding that her relationship with Frédéric, whom she married in 2011, became a beautiful ending to a heartbreaking season.

“It’s twisted,” she added. “But so beautifully twisted.”

Not that Twain’s life had been easy until then. The Canadian grew up in a troubled childhood, with her stepfather, Jerry, abusing Twain’s mother for much of her life, while the family of six lived in poverty. One of Twain’s earliest memories is seeing her mother knocked unconscious at the hands of her stepfather when Twain was around 4 years old.

“That was the beginning of the norm for the rest of my childhood,” Twain maintained. “I don’t know how we survived it.”

Twain was only 22 years old when her mother and stepfather were killed in a car accident, leaving Twain to raise her three younger siblings by herself. Her challenging early years unintentionally equipped Twain to handle the adversities that she would later face.

“Sometimes I get overwhelmed coping with things, but experience also teaches you how to manage,” Twain said. “When you get older, you have so much experience at falling and getting up. You’re not going to stop falling. But you will get better at getting up and brushing yourself off. I believe that. I’ve lived it.”

Twain is back in Las Vegas for another residency, in part because she fell in love with the city during her former residency.

“When you’re on tour going from town to town, it’s such a brief experience,” Twain explained to Las Vegas magazine. “During the residency in Las Vegas, I got to know the city better and just fell in love with it. And I like to be in the audience there. I’m always out eating at the restaurants and seeing other shows and going to hockey games. I guess I delved into the spirit of being a member of the community, and you know you’re never bored in Las Vegas.”

Photo Credit: Getty / David Crotty