Shania Twain Opens Up About The Wife Swap That Caused Her Voice To Vanish

Shania Twain is not talking about Celebrity Wife Swap, but a real life wife swap that ended her marriage to Robert Lange in 2008.

That is the year Shania and Robert separated. It was not long after their separation that the couple filed for divorce. However, in a shocking twist, Robert Lange married the woman that was Shania’s best friend at the time, according to E! Online.

Shania has been very open about the affair that ended her marriage in 2008. She shared details about the affair that ended her marriage in her 2011 book, and she has been open up about the end of her marriage again in recent interviews as she promotes her latest tour.

Shania Twain fans will be able to see the singer at performance venues across the country this summer. Starting Tuesday, the singer will go on stage at Madison Square Garden for three concerts. Shania is calling this her “last ever tour.”

This tour almost did not happen at all though. Both the end of her marriage and an illness in the early 2000s made her feel like she “would never sing again.” Some are saying the end of her marriage caused her illness.

Shania Twain lost her ability to sing, and it took her away from the concert stage for 11 years. She returned to the stage in 2012, but it was a difficult process for her. Doctors had no idea what caused her inability to sing. She was not able to use her vocal cords to make sound. Her inability to sing caused a depression. Doctors finally diagnosed the singer with dysphonia, an illness that causes “an impairment in the ability to produce sounds with the body’s vocal organs.”

Shania shared all about the difficulties she had in a recent interview, according to Closer Weekly.

“It was very depressing for me. I really believed that I would never sing again. I was convinced, because for a long time I just couldn’t get [sound] out. It wasn’t my vocal cords, which was very frustrating [because] if it was a straight-ahead problem I could just have an operation for, then I would have done it and dealt with it and got back to singing. But it was so much more mysterious than that. Recovering from this illness] was a slow, painful process. It was like learning to walk all over again. I had to learn how to use [my vocal] tools from scratch.”

The end of her marriage also made her feel like she might never sing again. It was a devastating blow for her. Not only was her marriage ending, but she was also losing someone that was very important to her – her best friend, Marie-Anne Thiebaud. A previous Inquisitr report revealed that Shania has said she wished she had never met the woman at all.

According to E! Online, Shania opened up once again about the end of her marriage and the woman behind it in an interview with the New York Post.

“When that happened, I thought, ‘Forget it, this is more than I can handle—I’m never going to sing again.’ I had to grieve through it. I don’t see her, ever. I don’t invite that trigger into my life…She’s not my future—she’s not my past.”

In another interview, the singer admitted what did happen when she saw her former best friend. She lost her ability once again for that moment.

“I had a total panic attack. I just told her that she was a bad person—that’s all I could get out!”

Twain has found new happiness again though. The singer remarried in 2011. However, in another twist – she married the ex-husband of her former best friend, Fredrick Thiebaud. She made it clear that she did not make the move out of revenge, according to the New York Daily News.

“[I] would never get married out of revenge. Happiness is important, and I just followed my own path.”

What is next for Shania Twain? Tour dates will continue throughout the summer, and the singer is working on her first new album in 13 years. The singer is pouring all the heartache from the last decade into this new album.

However, the album will have a very different sound. Shania shared about the new material.

“Everyone who hears them keeps telling me they sound haunting. I must be haunted. I’m a different person now. It’s a lot of years later. My goal is to make an album of my life now. It’s about survival, about how to come through (on) the other side.”

In fact, it is 20 years later. Her smash record, The Woman In Me, was released 20 years ago, and it was her partnership with Robert Lange that brought that record to life. “Mutt” Lange was the man that produced her music, and she had to learn how to work without him by her side in the studio after their divorce. She called that experience “very, very scary — like jumping off a cliff into the abyss.”

It does appear that Shania has bounced back from the troubles of the last decade, but the events have left her scarred. What do you think of the latest revelations regarding her divorce? Are you planning to head out to Shania Twain concert this summer?

[Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images]