Shania Twain is terrified she will die young leaving her teenage son without a mother.
Shania Twain
When the 52-year-old iconic country music singer was just 22, both her mother Sharon and stepfather Jerry Twain tragically died in a car crash and their deaths had a lasting effect on Shania who now worries her life will end early meaning she won't be around to support 16-year-old Eja Lange - her child with ex-husband Robert 'Mutt' Lange.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, she said: "I hope I'm there long enough for him that he doesn't feel the loneliness that I did. I know what it is to go through life with nothing to stand on, no one to fall back on."
After her parents died, it was up to the 'You're Still The One' hitmaker to support and raise her younger siblings, Jill, Carrie Ann and Mark, but she never felt sorry for herself as she knew she had to step up and care for them.
She said: "I had no other family, no aunts, uncles or anybody at all that ever helped me. Once my parents were gone, that was it. And that was the beginning of my adulthood. But I didn't have time to feel sorry for myself. I just kept going, and the divorce is when it hit me. But as bad as it was, it was just a failed marriage. It wasn't the end of my life. You have to move on. What I've learned mostly is that if you're feeling s**t or depressed, don't apologise for it. Because the 'just get over it' thing is insulting. You've got go to through this at your own speed. Time does heal. Life carries on. I believe in change."
Shania has just dropped her first album in 15 years which documents her personal struggles, and she firmly believes that "sharing" her experiences had helped her in many ways.
She said: "There were so many things I was ashamed of, couldn't bear anybody knowing. In fact, sharing makes it better. I wish I'd known that years ago. I've gone through all the petrifying obstacles. It wasn't easy. I was very scared. But I'm fearless at this point."
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