Tragic Details About Shania Twain’s Childhood – The List
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It’s hard to not want to kick a door down when Shania Twain sings “let’s go, girls.” The country superstar has been dominating the genre for decades, but despite all the fame and fortune that’s come with her long career, her real-life story is full of tragedy — and that includes her childhood. Growing up, the future five-time Grammy winner was clearly already a talented musician, but her abusive and neglectful upbringing would make life way harder than it needed to be prior to hitting it big.
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She was forced to play in adult-only locations before she even hit double digits, pretend everything was fine at home when it was definitely not, and take care of her siblings when her parents were otherwise occupied. Twain carried a lot on her shoulders from a young age, but, like a phoenix, she rose from the ashes and would go on to create the best-selling country album of all time by a female artist, and the second best-selling country album of all time by any artist.
She was inappropriately touched and suffered body issues
Shania Twain dealt with insecurity about her body for decades and shared in an interview with Us Weekly that she was the victim of unwanted touching when she was young. It happened so frequently that she didn’t even want to be a girl anymore. “As a female, throughout my youth [I was] touched inappropriately so many times [and] I was in abusive situations where you hate being a woman. I hated being a girl,” she told the outlet.
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Twain also revealed she told her mother she wanted to be a bodybuilder when she grew up so she could take back control of her own self. “I wanted to be a big, strong man that nobody was going to f*** around with. No one was going to touch my arm or my ass or anything unless I was OK with it.”
No one deserves to be treated that way, and what Twain endured is unforgivable. Thankfully, she was able to crawl out of the darkness and embrace herself through her powerful music.
Her stepfather was abusive
Back in 2011, Shania Twain did an interview with ABC News to help promote her then-new memoir, “From This Moment On.” She shared just how difficult her upbringing was, noting that her stepfather, Jerry Twain, whom she called “Dad,” would abuse her mother, Sharon Twain, as well as her.
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In one particularly scary account, the “You’re Still the One” singer recalled Jerry nearly drowning her mother in a toilet. “I thought he’d killed her,” Twain admitted. “I really thought she was drowned, or dead, or that he had just smashed her head in and she was never going to wake up.” The emotional roller coaster Shania had to go through during this is truly heartbreaking. She also told The Times how Jerry was physically and sexually abusive towards her. “You didn’t want to be a girl in my house.” The singer shared how she’d flatten her chest to avoid unwanted advances from her stepfather.
Despite the setbacks at home, Shania managed to finish high school, but skipped out on college in lieu of taking singing lessons and joining the band Flirt. However, her youthful twenties were cut short after her parents died in a car accident in 1987 when she was only 22 years old, leaving her to take care of her three younger siblings.
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She grew up poor
In addition to dealing with Jerry Twain’s horrible abuse, Shania Twain would often go to school hungry because the family struggled financially. In that same ABC News interview, she said, “It’s very hard to concentrate when [your] stomach’s rumbling.” Shania also recalled never having the courage to ask anyone for help, feeling embarrassed by her situation. Shania shared on “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” that if she ever brought attention to the fact she was being neglected or abused, her family could be broken up — something her parents burdened their daughter with.
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The future mother of one had to perform in bars beginning at only 8 years old to help bring in some money for the family. She told CBS News that she hated playing those gigs because the places were seedy. These adult environments weren’t the most appropriate places for an elementary school kid to be. “Many bars I played had cages,” she confessed, noting how rowdy the crowds got. She looked near tears during the interview as she recalled painful memories.
She wrote a song for her struggling mom
Part of the untold truth of Shania Twain involves the first song she ever wrote — at only 10 years old. While that’s an impressive feat, the reason she wrote the song is simply devastating. She told ABC News in 2013 that her first-ever tune, called “Mama Won’t You Come Out to Play,” was written with the goal of getting her introverted, depressed mother to emerge out of her shell.
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“She was always that person that was watching life happen from inside through a window,” Twain said. “My mother was … sad a lot of the time and really just didn’t have the courage to get out and face life, and so that’s why I wrote that song.” Imagine realizing this at only age 10 and being cognizant enough to write a song about it.
Furthermore, Twain also shared during that “Making Space with Hoda Kotb” interview how serious her mother’s depression was, going so far as to not leave the bed for days at a time. Because of this, Shania became the maternal figure of the household, making sure her siblings were ready for school and preparing her stepfather’s clothes.
