'I had a panic attack': Shania Twain on the moment she confronted the best friend who 'stole' her husband

It was the worst betrayal imaginable.

Her best friend had been having an affair with her husband of 15 years and she had found out about it the day after he asked for a divorce.

Now Shania Twain, 45, has recounted the moment she confronted 'the other woman' and said she suffered a panic attack when she came face to face with Marie-Ann Thiebaud.

Opening up: Shania Twain has revealed in her new memoir From This Moment On that she suffered a panic attack when she confronted her husband's mistress Marie Ann Thiebaud who was also her best friend



But the That Don't Impress Me Much singer also says that the moment was a let down because she did not express everything she was feeling due to her high state of anxiety.

'I had a total panic attack', Twain said. ' I just told her that she was a bad person - that's all I could get out!'

'When I left her, I thought, "You're such a wimp, you coward!"'

Shania and Marie-Anne were very close friends. They had met when the 40-year-old was employed to be the assistant and interpreter of singer's husband, record producer Robert 'Mutt' Lange.



The couple had moved to Switzerland for a simpler life away from the limelight after the country star had seen her career sky-rocket to become a best selling cross-over artist.



In the days following the split in 2008, Shania said she went into a tailspin.

Fresh start: Shania has found love again with her love-rival's ex-husband Frederic Thiebaud

'I was ready to die', she writes in her new book From This Moment On and said she barely ate or slept. She says she even wrote an email to Marie-Anne, 40, to beg for her husband back writing: 'I am dying, and I can't take it any more. This is killing me. Have mercy'. But although she pleaded - she never got an explanation or any details about the relationship from either her husband or Marie-Anne. What had made the pain worse is that she had confided in Marie-Anne about the trouble in her marriage and her fears that she thought Lange was having an affair. But Marie-Anne dismissed Shania's concerns and told her she had nothing to worry about, making her feel 'foolish' for even suggesting it. When she finally plucked up the courage to ask her if something was going on between her and her husband Marie-Anne said to her tearfully: 'I'm heartbroken that you would even think that I was hiding something from you.' But Marie-Anne's husband Frederic Thiebaud, 40, was the one to finally tell Shania the truth.

Betrayed: Twain with Marie-Anne Thiebaud (left) and on her wedding day (right)

He informed her that he had found phone bills, hotel information and receipts and had remembered seeing a garter belt and lingerie in luggage for a trip she was taking to be 'alone'.

In the book Shania writes: 'I was disgusted that another woman's lust for a lifestyle upgrade was worth the devastation of my family'.

But in what has turned out to be a 'twisted' piece of irony. Shania and Marie-Anne's ex-husband turned to each other during their time of need, finding friendship which turned into love.

The couple eventually married in January in an intimate beach ceremony in Puerto Rico.

She said: 'I don't take any day for granted any more. Fred has give me a new lease on love.'

Shania said she was initially dubious about getting together with her love rival's ex-huband and 'worried about what people would think of the relationship'.

But Thiebaud won over Shania little by little and calls his new bride, 'Sunshine'.

He has surprised her with romantic gestures like flying her to a Swiss glacier and renting out a movie theatre for a intimate dinner for two.

'To express my love, words are not enough. I'm more in love with her every day', Thiebaud said.

Happily ever after: Shania married Thiebaud in a beach ceremony in Puerto Rico in January



Shania has garnered five Grammys and sold an impressive 76million albums worldwide.

She said she had to learn to be independent again after her life with Lange, who was also her producer, were so entangled.

Shania also reveals that when she heard reports, later ruled to be false, of Tiger Woods' former wife Elin Nordegren attacking her unfaithful husband with golf clubs - she understood the anger and frustration.

'I had been very angry, angry enough to lose control; none of us are above it. [Reading that then] would have been the worst example for me - that would have liberated me. Somebody get me my golf clubs!' she laughed.

She said she even lost her voice for a while and was diagnosed with dysphonia, which is when the voice box is squeezed by the surrounding muscles which can be caused by fear and stress.

But Shania said, through it all, she had to be strong for her now nine-year-old son Eja who was the light that helped her get out of bed every day.

However, she does not allow Eja to spend any time with Marie-Anne, even when he is visiting his father. She said she has no desire to contact her. 'In fact my desire is to avoid her!'

Shania says her only communication with her ex-husband now is 'only about Eja, not about us at all'.

'It would be nice to be friends and not just co-parents... I will always love him. You can't just turn love on and off', but added that she has not forgiven him or Marie-Anne for what they did.

'I will never be okay with what they did', the Come On Over songstress said.

But she adds: ' I genuinely believe everything happens for a reason, so how can there be any room for regrets?'



The newlsywed is currently starring in her new docu-series called Why Not? With Shania Twain on Oprah Winfrey's Network, OWN

