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Before the Shakira and Gerard Pique and Khloé Kardashian and Tristan Thompson cheating dramas, there was Shania Twain and Robert John “Mutt” Lange. In what became a highly publicized scandal, Robert ended their marriage in 2008, and she found out he was having an affair with her close friend and secretary, Marie-Anne Thiébaud.
The Canadian singer married the producer in 1993 and welcomed their son, Eja, in 2001. It’s hard to imagine the pain of finding out your husband and father of your child is having an affair with your close friend, but Twain has forgiven him. Twain was a recent guest on the Great Company with Jamie Laing podcast, where she opened up about her journey of healing, saying she has forgiven him, and has no hate in her heart towards him.
Sixteen years after the scandal, Twain feels bad that he had “those problems.” “He’s a human being that deserves empathy and understanding,” she explained, saying any human deserves that - even when they are wrong.
She also says that Lange, now 75, “wasn’t well.” “I understand that he wasn’t well, that you don’t act certain ways unless there’s something wrong with you,” the “You’re Still the One Singer” shared. “Do I hate my ex-husband for making a mistake? No. It’s his mistake. Not my mistake,” she explained. “So sad for him that he made such a great mistake that he has to live with. And I don’t know what that is, but it’s not. That’s not my weight.”
Their relationship now
When she was a guest on Armchair Expert in 2023, she confirmed that Richard and Marie-Anne are still together. She also shared that they “parent well together — for people who don’t talk to each other,” noting that they “just text.” “We both love our son so much, so we don’t play any games like that,” Twain continued. “We have the same priority; we share spaces for him. No nonsense there.”
The cheating scandal
Robert told Twain he wanted a divorce in the summer of 2008. Twain said she thought he was acting weird, but it was Marie-Anne’s husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, who found out about the affair. “I did discover the affair with my wife and Mutt,” Thiébaud told Oprah. “I said, ‘Guys, now you have to tell [Shania]. This is ridiculous. You just owe her that.’”
Lange denied the affair, telling PEOPLE that they were “just growing apart.” When Twain called Marie-Anne, she reportedly denied it and changed her phone number. She also denied it to PEOPLE.
In an interesting twist of events, Twain found love with Marie-Anne’s ex-husband, Frédéric. Both devastated by the affair, Twain and Frédéric found solace in each other and eventually developed a romantic relationship in 2010. “We slowly became very, very good friends. We had many months of just trying to make sense of everything,” Twain told Ellen DeGeneres in 2011.
“Holding each other up was a very difficult time emotionally for both of us. And we really found something very beautiful in the end and unexpected,” the artist continued. They said “I Do” in Puerto Rico on January 1, 2011, and live together in Switzerland.