Shania Twain Opens Up About Painful Divorce & Finding Love Again

FIRST PUBLISHED: May 14, 2011 11:43 AM EDT

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Shania Twain went from country music hit maker to tabloid headline fodder when her 14-year marriage suddenly came crashing down. And now, the 45-year-old singer has revealed to Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson brand new painful details about her ex-husband’s alleged betrayal, and how she discovered the tragic news.

“My husband just said that our relationship is over and didn’t necessarily want a divorce. Well, he said, ‘I may not be in a rush to get a divorce,’” Shania told Shaun in a Los Angeles interview on Thursday, referring to her now-ex, Mutt Lange. “But you certainly can’t have your cake and eat it too… I’d understood that our marriage was over, but I did not know that there was an affair going on.”

The alleged affair was between her husband at the time – Mutt — and his personal assistant, Marie-Anne Thiebaud - who Shania considered a good friend.

It was Marie-Anne’s husband, Fred, who broke the news to Shania. Marie-Anne has denied the affair.

“[Fred] waited a few weeks to tell me,” she told Shaun. “He wanted them to tell me and they refused to, and so he just couldn’t stand to watch me be the only one that didn’t know.”

The painful split took its toll on Shania both emotionally and physically, as she said she went through a period of not being able to eat and experiencing a feeling of extreme cold.

“I was freezing all the time, I couldn’t get my body temperature up,” she told Shaun. “I was taking hot baths several times a day, but still freezing so cold that I had to wear my jacket inside. I wasn’t eating anything — I was on fluids [for] a whole week — not a solid bit of food.”

Frozen in a state of shock, Shania shifted to a state of desperation and defense, even firing off a confrontational E-mail to Marie-Anne — something she detailed in her new book, “From This Moment On.”

“It was a pleading E-mail that was very desperate and I was literally begging her to leave my husband alone, leave us in peace and let our family be,” Shania recalled. “She said, ‘I can’t control your husband’s feelings for me. It’s not my fault he loves me.’

“Then I started to get angry because… it took a lot of nerve to say that,” she added.

Thankfully, in a strange twist of fate, the “From This Moment” singer has found love and is now married to Fred Thiebaud, the ex-husband of Marie-Anne.

Fred looked on adoringly as Shania opened up to Shaun about how the scorned spouses came together, and married on New Year’s Day 2011 in Puerto Rico.

“He was always a very handsome man, but you know what? When you’re not looking, you don’t see it the same way,” Shania explained. “It took getting to know him. When I knew him just as a family friend, it was quite a formal relationship. Fred’s a very polite, kind of formal guy.”

Fred was indeed a “polite guy,” who was also going through the pain of a marriage on the rocks. Together they became closer, finding solace in each other.

“This relationship is as though I’m in love with my best friend, and that’s interesting,” Shania told Shaun of her newfound love. “I’m attracted, and my best friend is edible!”

Learn more about Shania’s new romance and her return to music on her new docuseries, “Why Not? With Shania Twain” — Sundays at 10 PM on OWN.

http://www.accesshollywood.com/shania-twain-opens-up-about-betrayal-her-painful-divorce-and-finding-love-again-with-her-best-friend_article_47994