Shania Twain reveals she will not forget her cheating ex's 'mistake' (2024)

Shania Twain has revealed that she will not forget her cheating ex-husband Robert 'Mutt' Lange's 'mistake', but she will try to understand him.

The singer, 58, was married to Robert, 75, who cheated on her with her former best friend Marie-Anne Thiébaud, from 1993 until their split in 2008.

The pair famously had a couple's swap when Shania married Marie-Anne's former spouse, Frédéric Thiébaud, 54, six months after her divorce was finalised.

Shania revealed that while she has some forgiveness for her ex, she will not 'necessarily forget' what he did as she admitted that she feels 'sad for him'.

Speaking to Jamie Laing on his Great Company podcast, she explained that despite his previous problems, he deserves empathy and understanding.

When asked about Robert and forgiveness, she said: 'Forgiveness is in the family of letting go. But forgiveness, more specifically for me anyway, is not about forgetting necessarily. It's about understanding the other person, and that might mean that they're wrong.

'Maybe you believe forever that whatever they did was wrong. Or maybe you believe that...Like in my father's a better example, okay, because this is someone that I totally forgive.

'But I understand that he wasn't well, that you don't act certain ways unless there's something wrong with you.

'I feel bad that he had those problems. So, it's not for him, not for, you know. So, it's very hard to hate or not be able to forgive somebody that you believe.

'He’s a human being that deserves empathy and understanding. I think we all do, you know. If you're a criminal, you know, just 'cause you're, you don't hate your own parent or I'm speaking for myself, you know.

'So, do I hate my ex -husband for making a mistake? No. It's his mistake. Not my mistake. 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.'

Shania previously revealed that Robert and her former pal Marie-Anne were still married15 years after their affair was exposed.

Speaking on the Armchair Expert podcast with co-hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, the Man! I Feel Like A Woman songstressrevealed she and Robert co-parent son Eja, 22, but never speak.

She said: 'Mutt and I parent well together — for people who don’t talk to each other. We’ll just text.

'We both love our son so much, so we don’t play any games like that. We have the same priority; we share spaces for him. No nonsense there.

Confirming Robert was still with Marie-Anne, she spoke about the beginning of her relationship withFrédéric, branding the romance a 'beautiful surprise' and 'what she deserved.'

She quipped about the couple 'playing musical chairs' when they swapped, but said she 'didn’t really know Fréd very well' before their respective splits.

Shania said she saw 'how gracefully and graciously he was dealing with navigating the same pain' after the affair was exposed, and while she felt 'fragile', he seemed 'thoughtful.'

She said: 'Fréd’s so smart. This is one of the smartest people I know, [and] he didn’t know [about the affair] either. That helped me feel better. I got what I deserve. I got the greatest man on the planet.'

Shania found out about the affair between her ex and her best friend the day after he asked her for a divorce.

She previously said of the moment:'I had a total panic attack. I just told her that she was a bad person - that's all I could get out!'

'When I left her, I thought, "You're such a wimp, you coward!"'

Shania and Marie-Anne were very close friends. They had met when Marie-Anne was employed to be the assistant and interpreter of the singer's husband, Lange.

The couple had moved to Switzerland for a simpler life away from the limelight after the country star had seen her career sky-rocket to become a best selling cross-over artist.

In the days following the split in 2008, Shania said she went into a tailspin.

'I was ready to die', she wrote in her memoir From This Moment On and said she barely ate or slept.

She says she even wrote an email to Marie-Anne to beg for her husband back writing: 'I am dying, and I can't take it any more. This is killing me. Have mercy'.

But although she pleaded - she never got an explanation or any details about the relationship from either her husband or Marie-Anne.

What had made the pain worse is that she had confided in Marie-Anne about the trouble in her marriage and her fears that she thought Lange was having an affair.

But Marie-Anne dismissed Shania's concerns and told her she had nothing to worry about, making her feel 'foolish' for even suggesting it.

When she finally plucked up the courage to ask her if something was going on between her and her husband Marie-Anne said to her tearfully: 'I'm heartbroken that you would even think that I was hiding something from you.'

But Frederic was the one to finally tell Shania the truth.

He informed her that he had found phone bills, hotel information and receipts and had remembered seeing a garter belt and lingerie in luggage for a trip she was taking to be 'alone'.

In the book Shania wrote: 'I was disgusted that another woman's lust for a lifestyle upgrade was worth the devastation of my family'.

But in what has turned out to be a 'twisted' piece of irony. Shania and Marie-Anne's ex-husband turned to each other during their time of need, finding friendship which blossomed into love.

The couple eventually married in January 2011 in an intimate beach ceremony in Puerto Rico.

She said: 'I don't take any day for granted any more. Fred has give me a new lease on love.'

Shania said she was initially dubious about getting together with her love rival's ex-husband and 'worried about what people would think of the relationship'.

But Frédéric won over Shania little by little and calls his new bride, 'Sunshine'.

He has surprised her with romantic gestures like flying her to a Swiss glacier and renting out a movie theatre for a intimate dinner for two.

'To express my love, words are not enough. I'm more in love with her every day', Frédéric said.