Why Shania Twain Doesn’t “Hate” Ex-Husband Robert “Mutt” Lange for Alleged Affair

Holding Grudges?Hate That don't impress Shania Twain much.

The "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" singer shared where her relationship with ex-husband Robert "Mutt" Lange stands more than 15 years after his alleged affair with her close friend Marie-Anne Thiebaud ended their marriage.

"It's very hard to hate or not be able to forgive somebody that you believe is a human being that deserves empathy and understanding," Shania explained on the May 28 episode of the Great Company With Jamie Laing podcast. "I think we all do. So, do I hate my ex-husband for making a mistake? No, it's his mistake, not my mistake."

"It's so sad for him that he made such a grave mistake that he has to live with," she continued, "but that's not my weight."

And for the 58-year-old, it's important to look at these situations with a lens of compassion.

"Forgiveness, more specifically for me anyway, is not about forgetting necessarily," she explained. "It's about understanding the other person, and that might mean that they're wrong. Maybe you believe forever that whatever they did was wrong."

Shania and Mutt, who share 22-year-old son, Eja Lange, split in 2008 after 14 years of marriage, allegedly due to the affair. However, Mutt denied his infidelity at the time, telling People of their separation, "It's absolutely not the reason." And Marie-Anne echoed the music producer's statements to the outlet at the time, adding, "You cannot believe everything you read in the press."

Fast-forward more than a decade later, and Shania has confirmed that Mutt and Marie-Anne are still together, sharing the revelation during a February 2023 appearance on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast. But she also found love again—with Marie-Anne's ex-husband Frédéric Thiébaud, whom she married in 2011. And although she and Frédéric weren't close at the time, having him around in the aftermath of the affair helped immensely.

"Fred's so smart," she explained to Dax. "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."

But since then, Shania has been able to navigate her relationship with Mutt as they've handled co-parenting smoothly.

"Mutt and I parent well together—for people who don't talk to each other," she said. "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."