Shania Twain's tragic past - family accident, husband swap divorce and brutal health battle

Few artists can say they’ve secured a Las Vegas residency – but Shania Twain has achieved not one, not two, but three in her career. So it’s only fitting that the 58-year-old star secured the Pyramid Stage’s legends slot for her Glastonbury debut over the weekend. And Shania – who was born Eilleen Regina Edwards – was ready to bring the fun, admitting ahead of her performance that she had even packed her wellies.

“I am getting into the spirit of the whole experience,” she laughs. “I will be bringing rubber boots – wellies, as you call them here. I will probably wear a cowboy hat if it’s raining… so I can keep myself from looking like a wet rat.”

With 100 million plus record sales under her belt, the You’re Still The One singer has more than earned her spot on that stage. Reserved for the very best of the best, the legend slot has seen the likes of Diana Ross, Dolly Parton, Dame Shirley Bassey and Tony Bennett storm the stage over the years. But despite performing countless times over her career – five world tours, to be exact – Shania views Glastonbury as her biggest award.

“So many of my heroes have done it,” she gushes. “Honestly, I feel like it’s well, I don’t know if this is the right language, but it feels like an accolade of sorts, really something that you have to earn, it’s just very rewarding, it’s a really beautiful feeling.” Completing the line-up alongside Cyndi Lauper, Dua Lipa and Coldplay – to name but a few – at the Somerset-based festival, the Queen of Country Pop is treating this, justifiably, as a career-highlight.

“My manager said, ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if that comes up,’ but it’s an invite that feels like a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Shania explains. “I was on the edge of my seat until it became a reality.” As for preparation, however, it looks like there was no need, as this was just one of many mammoth gigs Shania is performing this summer.

In May, Shania began her third Las Vegas residency – called Come On Over: All The Hits and hosted at the Bakkt Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino – and it spans all the way to December, with 24 soon to be sell-out shows in total. Featuring a 21-song setlist that is heavily inspired by her 1997 album Come On Over, Shania belts out renditions of Man! I Feel Like A Woman! and That Don’t Impress Me Much, along with Giddy Up! and Waking Up Dreaming from her latest record Queen Of Me.

But as she approaches her fifth decade in the music industry, just how does she do it? “Fluids,” she laughs. “I am an athlete, I have to breathe, I have to project. I have to pace everything,” says Shania as she insists she is far from ready to slow down. “I only drink fluids all day until after the show. I will have a glass of champagne after the show – I like to celebrate.” It’s safe to say that the country music legend knows exactly what she’s doing – but it has taken some relentlessly hard work to reach the top of her game.

Looking back on her childhood, Canadian-born Shania – whose parents Sharon and Clarence divorced when she was two years old – pursued singing and songwriting from a young age, and began performing on stage at eight years old.

However tragedy struck when Shania's mum and her stepdad Jerry died in a car accident in 1987, when she was just 22 years old. Shania and her two sisters had been brought up by Sharon and Jerry, who adopted Shania when she was two, and all three took his surname - Twain.

After leaving high school, the star toured around Ontario with a cover band called Flirt but soon released her debut, self-titled album in April 1993. But it was in February 1995, when Shania released her second studio album The Woman In Me, that she started to gain momentum. Garnering attention from industry greats, in 1996 Shania won the Best Country Album Grammy award for the album and was also nominated for Best New Artist and Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance for song Any Man Of Mine.

Refusing to take her foot off the pedal, Shania released her hugely successful third album Come On Over in November 1997, which is recognised by Guinness World Records as the biggest-selling studio album by a solo female artist, selling over 40 million copies. However, after her Greatest Hits album, Shania decided to take a musical hiatus in 2005 after experiencing vocal difficulties and dysphonia, which is an impaired ability to produce sound due to tightened muscles.

Although she soon returned in 2011 with a brand new song and was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the same year, Shania was forced to undergo two open-throat surgeries. In an interview with InStyle, Shania recalled the fears that washed over her at the thought of the surgery, which was revealed to be triggered by nerve damage as a result of Lyme disease, which she contracted in 2003 when horseback riding.

Shania said that “for six or seven years” she saw doctors and nobody could figure out why her voice was changing and fading. Finally, a doctor made the connection to Lyme disease. “After I had the surgery, I was petrified to make a sound. I didn’t know what was going to come out,” she explains. “It did scare me, but I just had to take a leap and make a sound. And I was so excited about what came out. It was a connection to the vocal cords and it came out very easily. I was really, really, really excited.”

Thankfully, it was actually her friends Gladys Knight and Lionel Richie who encouraged her to sing again. It was also down to her sheer determination and passion for music, Shania explains – something she learned was important very early on in her career. “I began my career on a live stage so young – my first gig was when I was eight – that by the time I got my deal in Nashville, I was fearless about the music industry,” she says, admitting how hustling can be intimidating for women.

“I didn’t open myself up to intimidation, but I recognise it is intimidating for most women. The industry is mostly men, not just in the higher positions, but also musicians.” Music hasn’t just been a career for Shania though, it’s also something that has saved her numerous times over the years.

The singer has spoken about how music got her through her darkest times, from her health struggles to her painful 2010 divorce from husband Robert Lange, after he had an affair with her friend Marie-Anne Thiébaud, all of which was covered in Netflix documentary Not Just A Girl. Shania, who went on to marry Marie-Anne’s ex-husband Frédéric in 2011, says music “heals” her and is a way of “escaping”.

Aside from struggles in love, Shania has also candidly discussed her ongoing battles with her body image, something she’s struggled with since childhood.

But, as she heads towards 60, the singer says she’s determined to ignore those negative, fearful thoughts telling her to cover up – and has opted to be bold, something that could be seen when she performed at Coachella Festival 2022 with none other than Harry Styles. “I decided that wherever there was a mirror and I was naked in my house or hotel, that I would keep the lights on and I would look in the mirror,” Shania says.

“Every month or day that I may notice another sag or another bit of cellulite, I want to know it’s there. “I want to be OK with it instead of thinking, I have to cover it up. I can’t change it and I don’t plan on changing it superficially. I have to take myself on the stage without feeling like I have to cover myself up. I want to feel liberated.”