Shania Twain, the country-pop superstar behind “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!,” described in vivid detail the violence that permeated her childhood home, where she and her sisters faced physical abuse. Speaking on Thursday’s episode of NPR’s “Wild Card with Rachel Martin,” Twain recalled growing up in Ontario, Canada, in a household marked by explosive conflict between her mother and stepfather that often extended to the children.
Twain said that despite her parents’ volatile relationship, they remained together through repeated cycles of violence. Twain told NPR host Rachel Martin that her parents fought often and turned violent frequently, even as they clearly cared for one another.
When Martin pressed on whether that violence reached the children, Twain did not soften it. She confirmed that it did, saying, “Yeah, with me too.” If she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong moment, she said, she was not spared. Both parents, she added, were physically harsh, and the children were smacked and, on occasion, literally kicked.
Walls That Shook With Fear
Twain said the most severe violence occurred between her mother Sharon and stepfather Jerry, describing injuries including lost hair and facial bruising so severe the house seemed to shake. She recalled the terrifying atmosphere as resembling a violent storm moving through their home.
Escape proved elusive. Twain said her mother tried to break away more than once, and the family did leave at times, but the pattern always reasserted itself. Her stepfather would track them down, or her mother would relent and return. It was, she said, a cycle that repeated itself again and again.
The family’s origins add another layer to the story. Sharon divorced Twain’s biological father, Clarence Edwards, when the future star was two years old. She later married Jerry Twain, who adopted Shania’s siblings when she was 4 years old.
Loss at 22 and a Family to Raise
At age 22, Twain’s life changed when both her mother and stepfather died in a collision with another vehicle near Wawa, Ontario, on Nov. 1, 1987, just as she was launching her music career. In the aftermath, she stepped into the role of provider, performing late into the night as a singer at a resort hotel to keep the family afloat and support her siblings.
That period brought its own strain. Twain has said she felt exploited on stage yet had no real choice, forced to project a glamorous, feminine image while guarding herself against unwanted attention. The performances demanded she display a confidence she had spent years learning to summon — a defense mechanism born of survival.
A History She Has Told Before
Thursday’s conversation was not the first time Twain has confronted her past publicly. In her 2011 memoir “From This Moment On,” she detailed years of physical and emotional abuse by Jerry, including witnessing him assault her mother. She recounted one episode in which she hit him with a chair to stop an attack on Sharon, prompting him to punch her in the jaw.
Twain has said Jerry began sexually abusing her at age 10. In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, she reflected on how that abuse became entangled with the physical and psychological cruelty she endured, explaining that she taught herself to block it out because the person responsible was someone she knew.
She has spoken, too, about the toll the abuse took on her sense of self. In earlier remarks about her stepfather’s conduct, Twain described flattening her chest and wearing bras that were too small to make herself less noticeable, saying she came to feel ashamed of being a girl in a home where womanhood felt dangerous. By the time she signed with a Nashville label in 1992, she carried an unmistakable air of self-protection — a message, written in her body language, that no one should come too close.
The years since have transformed Twain into one of music’s most enduring figures. Working with producer Robert “Mutt” Lange, she recorded “Come on Over,” which has sold 40 million copies and stands as the bestselling album by a female artist. Hits including “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and “You’re Still the One” cemented her crossover appeal. But on Thursday, the woman who once made empowerment sound effortless returned to the fear that shaped her, offering a stark reminder of how far she has traveled from the shaking walls of her childhood.
For anyone affected by domestic or sexual abuse, the National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 1-800-799-7233, or by texting LOVEIS to 22522.