Shania Twain and the other woman

Shania Twain was shocked into silence. The country star, 45, says she lost her voice when she discovered that her husband, record producer Robert “Mutt” Lange, and her best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébauld, were having an affair. She tried to face down Thiébauld, but it didn’t go well. “I had a total panic attack,” Twain told People. “I just told her that she was a bad person—that’s all I could get out! When I left her, I thought, ‘You coward!’ That was my big moment, and I blew it!” She then wrote Thiébauld angry letters. “Why are you torturing me? Find love somewhere else from someone else,” read one.

In her trauma, Twain developed dysphonia, a condition in which spasming vocal cords make singing impossible. Recently, she’s been finding her voice again, helped by the fact that she married Thiébauld’s handsome ex-husband, Frédéric, earlier this year. “It’s twisted,” she concedes, “but so beautifully twisted.” She has let go of her anger at Lange, but not at her former friend. “I do see Mutt through our child, and that goes very well. It honestly does. But I do not see Marie-Anne, and I will avoid that at all costs.”

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