It's been about a decade since Shania Twain finalized her divorce from Robert "Mutt" Lange.
On Thursday's episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, the 54-year-old singer looked back at the split and how her son, Eja, helped her get through it.
"[With] parenting—you have to be selfless….But what helps about that is that you're just not always so self-focused," Twain explained. "You're like, 'No, I'm a mom. I'm going to do my best. I'm committed to this,' and that is a very healthy—I don't want to say distraction—but preoccupation that you love, and enjoy, and it does bring pleasure in your life in that sense, of course. So, it just wasn't always about me all the time, and that was very, very helpful."
The five-time Grammy winner then shared a quote with her fans: "You have to live to survive to tell the story, so the hunter doesn't get the glory."
"Whatever it is that has pounced on you or is challenging you or weighing you down, you can't let it win," Twain said. "You have to survive, and then it's so important to tell the story, to share the story. So, you've got to survive to tell the story, and I just believe it's a great motto when you really just want to give up."
Twain and Lange announced their split in 2008 after 14 years of marriage. They then finalized their divorce in 2010. The breakup came after reports spread that Lange had allegedly had an affair with Twain's friend Marie-Anne Thiébaud. When asked what she would say to Thiébaud during a 2015 episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Twain said, "I wish I'd never met you."
Twain went on to marry Thiébaud's former husband Frédéric Thiébaud in 2011. She then released her album, Now, in 2017.
"I needed to do something that was really super independent musically and creatively, and, you know, a song like, 'Life's About to Get Good,' it's all about optimism and looking forward to what's next," she said. "The whole thing was a reminder that, you know, I can do this on my own. After divorce, it's a sever of so many things, and you have to find and rediscover your independence. So, this was an exercise of independence. It was great therapy. And also, because, my ex-husband was my producer and my co-writer. So, it was this huge… every element of my life—parenting, songwriting, record-making, partnership, all of that—I was now alone in all of that…And I'd lost my voice. I had to start over with my voice."
Twain said she "got Lyme disease at the end of the Up! Tour" in the early 2000s and that her "vocal cord nerves were damaged," leading her to get an open-throat surgery.
"It just felt like I had to start from zero on so many levels," she said. "But the voice has been a real triumph experience. Everything has been—love has been, parenting has been an absolute joy and my career. I'm just living my best life right now."
Watch the videos to see her interview.