Shania Twain doesn’t need her ex-husband Robert John “Mutt” Lange anymore – as a partner in marriage or music.
“It took a lot of working through, but I do believe that everyone’s got to do what is right for them,” Twain told People magazine of the series of unfortunate events that led to her divorce from Lange.
“I wouldn’t want to stand in anybody’s way,” she added of how she views the complicated situation. She also admitted that her positive hindsight comes from finding “such a wonderful life” post divorce.
“I found peace a long time ago, and maybe peace is forgiveness, you know? 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.”
Lange cheated on Twain with her friend Marie-Anne Thi?baud, leading to the demise of both their marriages. Twain is now happily married to Fr?d?ric Thi?baud, Marie-Anne’s ex husband. “It was a very low period in my life,” Twain told People.
“I was able to recover as a singer, I was able to work through the fear of working without Mutt. I was able to work through finding my own independence again, as an artist, after being so long with a music partner,” she said of overcoming the personal life struggles that seeped into her professional life.
Shania Twain opened up about how her relationship with ex-husband Robert John “Mutt” Lange has evolved.
(David Crotty/Patrick McMullan)
Not only was Twain married to Lange, he also produced her music.
“It was very offensive to be considered a molded artist, that it took a man or a team to mold me,” she noted of how she’s often perceived.
The couple married in 1993 and Lange helped her release her second studio album, “The Woman in Me.” They set records, and won the Grammy for Best Country Album.
“I just don’t need him anymore for that,” she says of Mutt’s involvement in her musical career. “And I just, in that sense, feel I’m able to look at what he did for me and all that he contributed to such a great part of my career and great part of my life.”
Shania and her ex-husband Robert John “Mutt” Lange share one son, Eja. He is now 21 years old.
(Gareth Davies)
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Today, Lange’s role in Twain’s life is a different one. “In the end, Mutt and I share a child that we co-parent and we enjoy that very much.”
The former couple are parents to 21-year-old son Eja.
“He shares his studio,” Twain explained of her ex-husband, “So my son, myself, and Mutt all use the studio, which is really great. So that’s kind of our crossroads area, which is, I think, really appropriate and it feels really good to say that.”
Shania Twain and Fr?d?ric Thi?baud have been married since 2011.
(Andreas Rentz/Getty Images for ZFF)
Although she loves being an independent woman and has found much of her voice in flying solo, Twain also credits her current husband for helping her creatively.
“He’s a lot of the brains behind so much of the work that I’m doing now and that – that really makes it possible for me to do it,” she says of Thi?baud. “We work a lot together, he’s very creative as well. He’s got a lot of energy, and that really makes him my third arm a lot of the times.”
