Shania Twain on how she found forgiveness for her ex-husband following his affair
"It's his mistake. Not my mistake."
Shania Twain is opening up about how she found forgiveness for her ex-husband Robert "Mutt" Lange.
Twain and Lange were married in 1993 and remained together until they split in 2008 following Lange's affair with Twain's close friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud. Twain has been married to her former friend's then-husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, since 2011.
In a new interview on the May 29 episode of the "Great Company with Jamie Laing" podcast, Twain shared how she came to a place of not having any hate for Lange.
"We're talking about letting go and how difficult it can be to let go," she said. "Forgiveness is in the family of letting go. But forgiveness, more specifically for me anyway, is not really … it's not about forgetting necessarily."
"It's about understanding the other person, and that might mean that they're, you know, wrong. Maybe you believe forever that whatever they did was wrong…," she trailed off.
Twain then began explaining how she found forgiveness for her late stepfather, Jerry Twain, whom she has accused of abusing her as a child, saying she has "totally" forgiven him.
Twain's stepfather and her mother, Sharon, both died in a car accident in 1987.
"I understand that he wasn't well, that you don't act certain ways, you know, unless there's something wrong with you, there's something wrong with your stability" she explained.
Twain said that instead of hating him, she "feel[s] bad that he had those problems."
"Its very hard to hate or not be able to forgive somebody that you believe," she added. "He's a human being that deserves empathy and understanding. I think we all do, you know?"
Shifting back to Lange's infidelity, the singer said, "Do I hate my ex-husband for making a mistake? No. It's his mistake. Not my mistake."
"[I'm] so sad for him that he made such a great mistake that he has to live with," she continued. "That's not my weight."
Twain and Lange are parents to their 22-year-old son, Eja.
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