The Truth About The Shania Twain Cheating Scandal
Shania Twain's love life has been made of the stuff you might expect to find in a country song by, well, Shania Twain. The country-pop sensation has been married twice, first to Robert "Mutt" Lange, a music producer who co-wrote many of Twain's most famous songs, including "Man! I Feel Like A Woman" and "That Don't Impress Me Much." Lange also worked with an incredibly broad swath of the music industry, working with everyone from ACDC and Def Leppard to Britney Spears and Lady Gaga.
Their relationship became embroiled in scandal in 2008 when it was revealed that Lange had been having an affair with a woman who was a longtime friend of the couple. Twain remarried in 2011, following an engagement of only a few weeks, to Nestle executive Frédéric Thiébaud in Puerto Rico. This is where things get messy: It turns out that Lange's affair was the thing that put Thiébaud back on the market, as Lange's mistress was Thiébaud's wife at the time.
Shania Twain and her ex-husband swapped spouses
In a plot that would not be out of place in a Shakespearean romantic comedy, Shania Twain and her first husband Mutt Lange basically just swapped partners. Lange cheated on her with her best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud, who was married to Frédéric Thiébaud at the time. Twain's heartbreak is what cleared the path to her current happiness with Frédéric. (Lange and Marie-Anne also married.) The country songstress summed it up perfectly: "It's twisted... but so beautifully twisted."
Had Lange not cheated with Marie-Anne, Twain and Frédéric would not have leaned on each other for support. The country songstress found it difficult to move on, but is glad she did, telling People, "I'm so grateful I found the faith and courage to love again — because the last thing you want to do when you're crushed is love again." And while both Twain and Lange have happily moved on since the scandal over a decade ago, that doesn't mean the betrayal doesn't hurt from time to time.
In particular, Twain told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live in 2015 about a run-in with Marie-Anne that gave her a "total panic attack." "I just told her that she was a bad person," Twain shared. "That's all I could get out!" Cohen asked Twain what she would say to her if she had the chance, and Twain was blunt: "I wish I'd never met you." Even if Twain's pain gave way to something great, there is still pain there.