Shania Twain has spoken candidly about the "very violent" childhood she experienced in Ontario, Canada, detailing instances of physical abuse against herself and her sisters. In a recent interview on NPR's "Wild Card with Rachel Martin," the 60-year-old singer shared that she and her sisters, Jill and Carrie Ann, were "smacked around a lot, and kicked around sometimes, literally kicked around."
Twain described witnessing frequent and brutal fights between her mother, Sharon, and stepfather, Jerry Twain. She characterized the domestic violence as severe, noting that the house would shake during arguments and that her mother often sustained visible injuries. "If I was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, definitely. I mean, both my parents were pretty harsh physically," Twain stated.
Her parents struggled with significant financial hardship, which often exacerbated their arguments. Twain recalled that her mother repeatedly attempted to leave her stepfather, but these separations were short-lived. "My mother did often try to leave. She did leave – we did leave – but he’d always find us, or she’d always give in and go back. It was a cycle," she said.
This is not the first time Twain has disclosed details about the abuse she endured. In her 2011 memoir, "From This Moment On," she wrote about experiencing both emotional and physical abuse from Jerry Twain. She recounted an incident where she intervened in an argument between her parents, resulting in her being physically struck by her stepfather. In 2018, Twain revealed that the sexual abuse by Jerry Twain began around age 10.
Shania Twain's mother, Sharon, divorced Twain's biological father when the singer was two years old. She later married Jerry Twain, who adopted Shania and her sisters. In November 1987, Sharon and Jerry Twain died in a car crash near Wawa, Ontario, when Shania was 22, just as her music career was beginning.
Twain also recently discussed her current marriage to Frederic Thiebaud, crediting open communication for its success. She contrasted this with her previous marriage to Robert "Mutt" Lange, which ended following allegations of infidelity involving Lange and Thiebaud's then-wife. Twain and Thiebaud married in 2011 and share a son, Eja, who is now 25.