After decades in the industry, Shania Twain has come out the other side of difficult times including the breakdown of her marriage, career highs and lows, and a debilitating sense of self-worth and confidence.
Now, at almost 60, the country superstar has made an incredibly poignant comment about the endless search for the perfect body after years of "dangerous" thinking.
"I was always insecure about my body. 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," Shania told Us Weekly.
© WireImageThe singer went on to share that for the longest time she hated her body because she had boobs and hips and "a lot of the models when I was a kid were very, very thin, that was a sign of elegance and feminine beauty to me".
"I wish I’d come to this so much earlier, but I think referencing yourself to others is dangerous," she continued.
© Getty Images"For me, walking on the beach in a bathing suit is like, 'What was I waiting for?' Of course I don’t have the body I imagined — because my image of the perfect body is a supermodel with no cellulite, perfect proportions and a beautiful stride.
"This is just not me. You can wish a lot of time away ignoring what you actually look like. Just get real with yourself."
In January Shania walked what she talks when she hit the beach in Mexico with her husband, Frédéric Thiébaud.
The pair soaked up the sun in Tulum, Mexico, and Shania looked gorgeous strolling along the beach, makeup-free and showcasing her youthful complexion and sun-kissed glow as she joined her husband for a romantic stroll, swapping a bikini in favor of a pair of pattered white and blue hotpants and a yellow, loose T-shirt with 'Love' emblazoned across the front.
© WireImageIt was a belated 14th wedding anniversary trip for the pair, who tied the knot on New Year's Day in 2011 in Rincon, Puerto Rico.
They fell for each other after their respective spouses had an affair; Shania discovered in 2008 that her then-husband, Robert John 'Mutt' Lange had been having an affair with close friend and personal assistant Marie-Anne Thiebaud, who was married to Frédéric.
Her relationship with Mutt remains cordial at best, and they only communicate via text if it's about their son, Eja, now 24."
We both love our son so much, so we don't play any games like that," she once said on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast. "We have the same priority; we share spaces for him. No nonsense there."
