'I'm gonna face that fear': Shania Twain speaks out over being abused by her stepfather aged 10
6 January 2023, 00:21
Shania Twain has spoken further about the sexual abuse she suffered from her stepfather aged 10.
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The singer, 57, recalled the horrific crime during a new interview on Thursday, saying the trauma has lasted and that she had felt embarrassed about her body.
She explained why she went with nude photography for the cover of her album Queen of Me: "I'm the boss of me."
The That Don't Impress Me Much singer said: "It's really about saying I was abused as a kid.
"My stepfather would fondle me up on the top and make me go without a shirt and I was already maturing.
"This cringy, horrible, wanting to escape being in my own skin."
She added: "I don't love looking at myself in the mirror with the lights on or looking at the mirror at all at my body. So I said listen, I'm gonna face that fear."
She wants to start loving herself "in my own skin" and not be shy of it.
"Loving who you are. I'm my own royalty. I'm the boss of me, and I'm responsible for the decisions I make, for what I say, for what I do.
"It's a statement of self-confidence that I've grown into more over the last few years."
The five-time Grammy winning artist's stepfather, Jerry, died in a car crash with her mother Sharon in 1987.
Ms Twain had a tough upbringing in a violent home which sometimes ran out of food or power. She previously detailed the abuse in 2018.
"I feel the sexual abuse goes hand in hand with the physical and psychological abuse when it’s somebody you know. I learned to block it out," she said.
"Abusers need to manipulate you, whether it’s before or after, and what I said to myself is: ‘OK, there’s something wrong with this person and that person is not well.'"
