Shania Twain made shocking revelations about her stepfather’s sexual abuse
In a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Shania Twain revealed that she covered her breasts as a child to shield herself from her stepfather’s abuse.
The singer, who became a household name in the late ’90s because to the success of her third album, “Come on Over,” spoke candidly about the difficulties of raising her four siblings and herself in Ontario, Canada under the same roof as their mother and stepfather.
Twain, now 57 years old, revealed to the newspaper that she began performing in bars when she was just eight years old and that her family was poor.
Twain admitted that, as a performer, expressing her femininity didn’t come readily to her because of the sexual and physical violence she suffered as a child, despite the fact that she now appears comfortable doing so.
She swore she wouldn’t let her figure change in any way during her preteen years. “I hid myself and I would flatten my boobs. I would wear bras that were too small for me, and I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me,” Twain said. “Make it easier to go unnoticed. Because, oh my gosh, it was terrible — you didn’t want to be a girl in my house.”
Twain has written about her childhood difficulties before. According to Country Living, it was in her memoirs “From This Moment On” from 2001 where she first spoke publicly about being abused by her stepfather physically and sexually.
In the book, she describes times when she intervened violently during arguments between her parents out of fear that her stepfather might kill her mother.
Twain explained to The Sunday Times that it was not bravery but rage that drove her to take action. “It took a long time to manage that anger. You don’t want to be somebody that attacks me on the street,” she explained. “Because I will f***ing rip your head off if I get the chance.
When she was 22 years old, both of her parents passed away in a vehicle crash. She told the magazine that it took her a little longer, but she eventually discovered body acceptance and confidence.
“I could speak and tell a story about myself, by the way I moved my body, the drape of the fabrics, the colours, where the focus was,” she explained. “I was never an exhibitionist for the sake of, like, saying, you know, ‘Look at my tits.’ It was really me coming into myself. It was a metamorphosis of sorts.”