The Truth About Shania Twain's Relationship With Her Husband

Ah, celebrity marriages. Is there anything more interesting than a relationship like singer Shania Twain's marriage? Fans just can't get enough of inside looks into their favorite celebrities' lives — and loves. Honestly, who can blame them? There's usually the whole "are they?" or "aren't they?" relationship buildup, the budding romance, the deliciously expensive wedding, and, in many cases, the dramatic, highly-publicized divorce. Come on! It's like the best romance movie, but it's real! Everyone has their favorite celeb marriage, be it Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (that one was a heartbreaker), Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, or even Barack and Michelle Obama. Shania Twain's marriage, however, is truly one for the books.

The word-famous country singer has a love story that is truly epic. "I am actually grateful for what I've gone through and wouldn't change a thing," Twain wrote in her tell-all memoir titled From This Moment On (via Oprah.com). "Although I admit I wouldn't want to live it over again, either. Once was enough." But what actually happened? Here is the truth about Shania Twain's relationship with her husband.

Everyone needs a vacation now and again, but celebrities, most of all, need somewhere they can go to escape from the cameras, paparazzi flashes, and general tension of life in the spotlight. For Shania Twain, that place is Switzerland. "Switzerland was just a place that I could go and be very quiet," she said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Little did she know that her quiet days to the snowy land would lead to some of the best and worst times of her life.

Twain, then-husband Mutt Lange, and their young son needed some help while in Switzerland — and what celeb can go anywhere without an assistant? So, according to Belfast Telegraph, she hired Marie-Anne Thiébaud to take care of their gorgeous, 46-room home and assist her with daily tasks. Marie-Anne was married to Frédéric Thiébaud at the time, and the two families quickly developed a friendship. "Fred and Mutt were good friends, and Marie-Anne and I were good friends," Twain revealed on Oprah. But they didn't stay that way for long.

It's pretty interesting that Shania Twain became friends with her future husband when she was still married to her first husband, Mutt Lange. But how Mutt became her ex-husband is even stranger. According to People, Lange told Twain he wanted a divorce in the summer of 2008, but he didn't give her a reason for wanting out of their 14-year marriage. Twain and Lange were very good friends with Marie-Anne and Frédéric Thiébaud at the time — so close, in fact, that Marie-Anne was the person Twain went to when her husband approached her about a divorce. "I said, 'Marie-Anne, don't you think my husband is acting strange?'" Twain dished on Oprah. "And she said, 'No, I don't see anything strange.'" 

Well, according to Twain, Marie-Anne was lying. She was reportedly having an affair with Mutt Lange! Though Lange vehemently denied it, claiming in the People interview that the breakup was "literally just a growing apart," sources close to Twain and, eventually, Twain, herself, confirmed his infidelity.

If finding out your husband was having an affair is bad, finding out about the affair from his mistress' husband is really, really bad. And, sadly, that's exactly what happened to poor Shania Twain. Frédéric Thiébaud was the one who discovered the affair between Mutt Lange and Marie-Ann Thiébaud when, as reported by Daily Mail, he found suspicious hotel receipts, phone bills, and even a sexy garter belt and lingerie set in his wife's suitcase. "I did discover the affair with my wife and Mutt," Thiébaud said on Oprah. "I said, 'Guys, now you have to tell [Shania]. This is ridiculous. You just owe her that.'" But the secret lovers didn't want to tell Twain, so Thiébaud had to do it himself.

Twain said that when she first heard the news, she was in shock. "I called [Marie-Anne] up," Twain revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "I wanted to give her the opportunity to tell me herself without me accusing her." But Marie-Anne lied to her friend again, denying the affair and even going so far as to change her phone number so Twain couldn't contact her anymore.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the double betrayal of her husband and her best friend left Shania Twain devastated and broken. "I was ready to die," she wrote in her memoir From This Moment On (per People). Twain lashed out in her pain, begging Marie-Anne Thiébaud for an explanation and finally sending her a heartbreaking email that read, "If you could see me crying and suffering, maybe you would have pity. Find love somewhere else from someone else that isn't hurting two families so much." The singer's devastation also took a toll on her physical health. Shortly after the divorce, she was diagnosed with dysphonia, a condition in which the voice box is squeezed too tight by the surrounding muscles. The condition, though unrelated to the breakup, was worsened by the stress and left her unable to sing.

"I didn't want to love again — it was the last thing on my mind," she told People. Who can blame her? But, slowly, her bond with Frédéric Thiébaud grew, even though she didn't want it to at first. "I rejected it initially," she explained. "But I couldn't control Fred's love for me and how easy he is to love."

Who hasn't been in a relationship that was a little, well, off? For Shania Twain, it was her relationship with Frédéric Thiébaud. In fact, in an interview she did for AARP Magazine (via E!), Twain didn't just call their romance "off," she called it "twisted ... but just so beautifully twisted." Why? Because Thiébaud was her ex-friend's husband, and that ex-friend is in her own relationship with Twain's ex-husband. Talk about wife swap!

Twain turned to Thiébaud for comfort, support, and understanding in the aftermath of the cheating scandal and her highly publicized divorce. In that comfort, they fell in love. "We slowly became very, very good friends. We had many months of just trying to make sense of everything," Twain said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "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." Beautiful and twisted.

Shania Twain was in a dark place when she found out about her ex-husband's affair. "It was like I was kicked off my own bus while it was moving full speed ahead, and I landed in the dirt and everything I had was thrown out after me," she explained to Redbook. "And after tumbling and getting a mouthful of dirt, I had to try to stand up, and then figure out where I was and start walking." As it turned out, she walked right into the arms of Frédéric Thiébaud.

Their romance didn't start right away, as she wasn't ready for love initially (per People). It was the way that Thiébaud handled the scandal and heartbreak that made Twain see him in a new light. "I got to observe Fred going through the same thing I was, and I admired how he handled it," she went on to say in the Redbook interview. That is where I fell in love with him, because he was so exemplary in every way."

While the average person heals from heartbreak and celebrates a new romance by eating lots of ice cream or going on dinner dates, celebrities take it to a whole new level. After Shania Twain and Frédéric Thiébaud's spouses left them for each other, the pair began a new relationship of their own. How did they spend their first months together? Traveling the world, of course!

As per a report from People, Twain and Thiébaud, along with their children Eja (Twain's son) and Johanna (Thiébaud's daughter) went jet setting. They went camel riding and skydiving in Egypt, shopping in Manhattan, and relaxing by the lake in Canada. Throughout their travels, Thiébaud acted as the official videographer — capturing hours of footage on his cell phone. "The home footage is full of happy faces, beautiful, interesting places and lots of horses," Twain wrote in a website post (via People). She went on to write that Thiébaud was her "constant companion and support," and since they both went through a similar heartbreak, he "understands [her] better than anyone."

Shania Twain and Frédéric Thiébaud got serious pretty fast. According to People, the pair began officially dating in 2009 and got engaged in December of 2010 — with a gorgeous, sparkling, three-carat solitaire diamond ring (per People). Thiébaud gushed about his soon-to-be-bride on Oprah, saying, "She's a true angel."

The lovebirds didn't wait long to tie the knot after they got engaged. Just one short month later — on New Year's Day 2011 — they were wed in an intimate, sunset ceremony in Rincon, Puerto Rico, as reported by People. Only 40 people were in attendance as Twain and Thiébaud exchanged vows, but that's exactly the way they wanted it. "My closest friends and family say they haven't seen me this free-spirited and happy in years," Twain revealed to People. "And it's true. It's definitely true." In a website post (per People), Twain went on to say of her new husband, "Frédéric Nicolas Thiébaud has been a true gift to me as a compassionate, understanding friend ... an amazing love has blossomed from this precious friendship."

Frédéric Thiébaud and Shania Twain were deliriously happy when they fell in love and got married in 2011. But before their romance began, Twain wasn't sure she would ever be able to love again. "When you have a great loss, you lose faith; you get very discouraged," she told People. "I'm sure a lot of people say, 'I'm never going to love again. I never want to fall in love again.' Songs have been written about that." She did suffer a truly great loss — the betrayal of both her then-husband and her former best friend. But Thiébaud saved her from a life of loneliness, as she revealed to People, because he helped her find "the faith and courage to love again."

And that love seems to be a lasting one. As of this writing, they're still blissfully married. What's their secret to such a long and happy marriage? As Twain told People, "Faith and love."

Frédéric Nicolas Thiébaud is just an average, Swiss-born executive working for Nestle (as per CountryFancast). How can he keep a global superstar like Shania Twain so deliriously happy? He treats her right. The curly-haired Swede uses his actions as well as his words, since, as he told Daily Mail, "to express my love, words are not enough. I'm more in love with her every day."

One wonderful example of Thiébaud's romantic actions is the time he made Shania Twain a surprise snack. "The other day I was showering ... He knew I hadn't eaten yet," the singer dished to Redbook. "I could hear chopping and singing ... I came out of the bathroom, and he'd set up a little table with a note saying, 'I love you — Fred.' And there was a glass of wine and this beautiful salad with little tomatoes and flowers all around the edges." Frédéric Thiébaud is really setting the bar high for husbands everywhere.

Though they've been married for a while, Frédéric Thiébaud and Shania Twain are still very much in love. And, get ready, romantics — they express their love in the sweetest ways, like giving one another cute pet names. "We stare at each other a lot and call each other lovey names," Twain told Redbook. "I'm Sunshy, short for Sunshine, and he's Beauty Man because he's so darn beautiful!" And beautiful, he is. In the Redbook interview, when asked about her husband's best physical feature, the singer replied, "His eyes. They're gentle, intelligent, and alluring, and such a beautiful shade of green. Fred's and [her son] Eja's eyes are exactly the same shade."

When they're not staring into each other's eyes, the happy couple likes "Kissing, talking, playing tennis." Twain also boasted about Thiébaud's tennis skills saying, "Fred hits hard and keeps me on my toes. I'd chase a ball for him any day" (via Redbook). She went on to gush that, "He's too good to be true, only he's real! Good for me, is all I can say, and I'm loving every minute of it."

Back in 2011, Shania Twain had a docu-series on OWN called Why Not? with Shania Twain. The show follows Twain as she deals with her past traumas and finds her voice again. She visits her hometown in Ontario, where she consults doctors, vocal coaches, and grief counselors, and she even sits down with others who have experienced similar traumas. Where did Twain get the idea for the show? Her husband, Frédéric Thiébaud.

As Twain shared with Redbook, she and her husband were in Italy for his birthday when he began recording her on his phone. After watching the footage she thought, "I've never seen myself like this before. I've never seen myself so devastated." She continued on to say, "And I realized I didn't want to run away anymore. I wanted to face it ... I have to document everything." Twain's docu-series shows a stripped down and very real side of the singer. What was her intention? "I hope that people benefit from the candid footage. I'm human, you're human, we all go through the same doo-doo. No need for makeup, lights, action."

Though Shania Twain is a country singer who hails from Ontario, Canada, she and her husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, settled in far-away Switzerland. As reported by L'Illustré, the pair own a stunning home in La Tour-de-Peilz. Their mansion is complete with a piano that rests in front of a massive portrait of Twain, along with a lush, rolling garden with a view of mountains and a lake, and, of course, a black horse named Hermès. 

But Twain and Thiébaud don't spend all their time in the mountains of Switzerland. Like any self-respecting celebrity couple, they also own a spectacular mansion in the Bahamas. According to Taste of Country, the singer and her businessman husband retreat to a 7,000 square-foot home with five bedrooms and six bathrooms when they want some time in the sun. Located in West Nassau, the house also boasts 150 feet of beachfront, pool house, boat slip, and breathtaking ocean views. The couple is certainly living the good life now. The singer even recorded a song in 2017 called "Life's About to Get Good" that was inspired by her happiness following her pain after the end of her first marriage.

From a highly publicized marriage to her music producer former husband and a scandalous affair that almost took her voice to a fresh romance and a new lease on life, Shania Twain has been through a lot. But does she regret it? No. Does she think all the pain and suffering were worth her current happiness? Absolutely. The singer is grateful for the way things turned out. As she explained in an interview with Belfast Telegraph, "I had to meet this horrible betraying friend in order to meet this extraordinary man. And I had to meet Mutt to have this child who is the absolute center of my life."

Her gratefulness doesn't take away from the betrayal she and her husband had to endure. Nor does it make her forget it. "I definitely forgive. I just don't forget," she told Belfast Telegraph. "This will haunt me forever. It is impossible to forget." But no matter what, Twain and Thiébaud's relationship is still wonderful. As Twain told Belfast Telegraph, "We both can't believe it still. It's incredible. It is a beautifully incredible thing that is like a miracle."