Shania Twain - VEntertainmentOnline.com

Shania Twain Biography

Although Shania Twain is one of the wealthiest and most famous singer/songwriters of all time, her life has not turned out how she expected.

For a start she never wanted fame, or to be a sex-symbol and often feels uncomfortable and stressed when called upon to do photo shoots. She believes music lasts forever, images do not.

Writing and singing music is when she feels at her best spiritually, emotionally and physically, but when she started singing her ambition was to be a backing singer for Stevie Wonder, she never wanted the limelight herself.

When she married music producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange on December 28th 1993 she was ecstatically happy and the crowning glory was when their son Eja D'Angelo was born on August 12th 2000.

They lived in a beautiful chateau in Switzerland then Twain paid $14.1 million for a 61,000 acre ranch in New Zealand. Twain and Lange were planning to farm Merino sheep as well as create a walking trail with huts and facilities for hikers. They would divide their time between Switzerland and New Zealand, spending several months of the year there.

The purchase in 2001 softened the blow when she received the news that her half-brother Darryl had been arrested and charged with possession of rock cocaine with the purpose of trafficking. After the death of her mother and her step-father in a car accident in 1987, she had raised Darryl and three other siblings.

But this was nothing to the blow she felt when she found out her husband of 14 years had been cheating on her and what was worse was the fact the relationship was with her best friend Marie-Anne Thiebaud. Thiebaud had been Twain's long-time secretary and managed the couple's chateau in Switzerland.

They separated in 2008 and Thiebaud also left her husband to live with Lange and on June 9th 2010 they were divorced.

Since the separation she has received comfort from Marie-Anne's husband Frederic as they had both been heart- broken by the sudden discovery of the affair. They have supported each other and Twain and Thiebaud were seen together publicly at the 2010 Red Cross Ball in Switzerland and seemed very happy.

Twain rose to fame in the mid 90s with her album "The Woman in Me" and in 1997 achieved worldwide success with "Come On Over". It was the best-selling album of all time by a female musician and the best-selling country album of all time, selling over 39 million copies worldwide.

She is a five-times Grammy Award winner and has won 27 BMI Songwriter Awards, she was also one of the first artists to achieve a major crossover success in pop music.

Shania Twain is the only female artist to have three albums certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America and is the second best-selling artist in Canada behind fellow Canadian Celine Dion.