A saga worthy of a country song. Shania Twain and her ex-husband, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, were once one of the music industry’s biggest power couples — and their split later became one of its biggest scandals.
The Grammy winner met the producer in June 1993, two months after she released her self-titled debut album. The LP was critically acclaimed but a commercial flop, and Lange — who was known for working with rock acts including AC/DC and Def Leppard — offered to produce Twain’s next album.
The duo began collaborating on The Woman in Me, which debuted in February 1995 and eventually became one of the bestselling country albums of all time. Before the album’s release, however, the twosome’s working relationship grew romantic, and they tied the knot in December 1993.
Lange’s influence helped Twain’s music reach a larger audience, but she’s always been careful to note that she shaped her own image herself. “A lot of those ideas were things I was working on before I met him, but when you get together with the right person, all the right things seem to start happening,” she told Interview magazine in March 1996. “He comes from the rock world, so he’s got so much spunk to his music. But obviously, we have a much closer relationship than your average cowriters.”
The pair also teamed up for the country star’s record-breaking albums Come on Over and Up!, but things weren’t so rosy behind the scenes. Twain contracted Lyme disease after being bitten by a tick in 2003, and the illness caused damage to her vocal cords that prevented her from touring and recording new music.
Five years later, the Canada native’s marriage to Lange imploded after he was allegedly caught having an affair with her friend and former personal assistant Marie-Anne Thiébaud, who was married to exec Frédéric Thiébaud at the time.
“For the first week after finding out about the affair, I was ready to die,” Twain wrote in her 2011 memoir, From This Moment On. “To go to bed forever and never wake up. Or to hurt someone. I was ready to do something desperate. But in reality, there was nothing to do but to suffer through it.”
During a 2011 interview with Ellen DeGeneres, the “Any Man of Mine” songstress revealed that Frédéric was actually the person who told her about Marie-Anne’s relationship with Lange. “I didn’t believe him and I thought for sure he was making it up,” Twain recalled. “I was obviously just in denial on my part.”
Despite the public scandal, the Broad City alum wrote in her autobiography that she wouldn’t change what she went through because it led her to Frédéric, whom she married in 2011. “Although I admit I wouldn’t want to live it over again, either,” she added. “Once was enough.”
Keep scrolling for a complete timeline of the drama between Twain and Lange.
