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Shania Twain recently appeared on the Armchair Expert podcast and opened up about her former best friend Marie Anne Thiebaud’s affair with her now-former husband Robert “Mutt” Lange.
Twain ended her marriage of 14 years with Lange after the shocking affair came to light. The singer reflected on her split and said,
“I don't think that a lot of things that happened to me since my divorce should have been so hard on me. I should have been less naive about life's ups and downs. Maybe I'm too much, like, ‘That's all behind me.’”
However, she also clarified that she is no longer “embarrassed” by the 2008 controversy. After finalizing her divorce from Lange, Twain grew closer to Marie Anne Thiebaud’s then-husband and former Nestle executive Frederic Thiebaud over their shared pain and heartbreak.
The duo eventually tied the knot on January 1, 2011, and have been together ever since. Armchair Expert host Dax Shephard joked that Shania Twain and Marie Anne Thiebaud played “musical chairs” by swapping their husbands.
However, the musician clarified that she did not know Frederic well before their respective partners cheated on them with each other. Twain also revealed that Marie Anne Thiebaud is still with Robert Mutt Lange.
Reports suggest that the couple possibly stayed in Switzerland following their divorce and lived somewhere near Twain and Frederic.
What is known about Marie Anne Thiebaud?
Marie Anne Thiebaud was previously known as Shania Twain’s personal assistant, secretary, and estate manager, as well as best friend. The duo were known for spending almost all their holidays and special occasions together.
However, their friendship ended in betrayal after Thiebaud made news by having an affair with Twain’s then-husband Mutt Lunge. She was previously married to former Nestle project leader Frederic Thiebaud and shares a daughter with her ex-husband.
Anne Thiebaud was reportedly born in 1971 in La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, and spent her childhood in the country. In the wake of her affair with Lunge, Thiebaud divorced Frederic in 2008 after seven years of marriage.
Back in 2015, Shania Twain spoke about her former best friend while speaking to talk show host Andy Cohen and said she once had a panic attack after running into Marie Ann Thiebaud after the controversy
“I just told her that she was a bad person. That’s all I could get out!”
The singer also said that the only words she had for Thiebaud were, “I wish I’d never met you."
“That would be it. I think there are some people in life you would say, ‘I would have been better off not ever knowing that person.’”
However, she soon changed her response and said:
“I can’t say I would be better off because I think I learned a lot from all of that. I don’t regret it.”
Marie Anne Thiebaud has mostly stayed out of the spotlight since marrying Shania Twain’s former husband. Many people have often reported that she still lives in Switzerland with Mutt Lange.
Shania Twain reflects on her divorce and re-marriage
Shania Twain has mostly maintained silence about her divorce with former husband Robert “Mutt” Lange over the years.
However, she recently opened up about their split and her decision to marry Frederic Thiebaud during an appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast.
Twain revealed that she was “uncontrollably fragile” over her former husband’s infidelity with her then-best friend:
“I was uncontrollably fragile over it, which I had never felt before ever because I thought for once I was stable. I really believe that I'm safe, so that really devastated me I think more than any other instability I've ever felt.”
However, she said that Frederic Thiebaud was “thoughtful” and “smarter” about the situation:
“He was so thoughtful about it all… It was not cool with him, but he was smarter about it.”
The Grammy-Award winner shared that while the scandal made her feel “stupid,” Frederic going through the same experiences with her somewhat softened the harsh reality:
“Fred's so smart. This is one of the smartest people I know, he didn't know either. That helped me feel better. Neither of us saw it coming, I allowed myself to trust too much… I did let my guard down too much.”
Speaking about the betrayal, Shania Twain revealed that she was “angry” over the situation:
“I was angry, though. The anger comes a lot from my childhood too because I'm thinking, ‘Man, you can do anything to me, but if you f***ing lie, like, right to my f***ing face? Now, I'm so angry.’ It wasn't just, ‘Infidelity happens.’ That was not me. I spun around in that for quite a while. That was the hardest part to let go of really, the anger.”
The musician mentioned that seeing Frederic dealing with “navigating the same pain” “gracefully and graciously” was a “beautiful surprise” to witness. However, Shania Twain clarified that she had no romantic connection with him while they were still married to their respective partners:
“I did not get close to Fred at all, we didn't have each other's numbers. He was not really part of our daily lives because he was working these crazy hours. A lot of travel [for his] very high-profile company, just suit and tie and so he would be around, like, weekend dinners and stuff like that, we would all eat together and that was it.”
She added that Frederic, in fact, interacted more with Twain’s ex-husband at the time:
“It would be mostly him and Mutt chatting, so I didn't really know Fred very well.”
Speaking about her current equation with her former husband, Shania Twain said they no longer speak to each other beyond conversations concerning their 21-year-old son Eja:
“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.”
The You’re Still the One hitmaker ended her interview by saying that “everyone gets what they deserve” and that she received what she deserved by getting a chance to marry “the greatest man on the planet.”
