Photo Credit: Getty Images
Shania Twain is getting candid about a darker chapter of her Las Vegas years.
The country superstar revealed she resorted to "unhealthy things" in an effort to stay "thinner" while performing her demanding residency in 2019, opening up about a period when she avoided mirrors entirely and struggled to accept her changing body.
"I stopped looking at myself in the mirror. I hated my body," the 60-year-old told the Times in an interview published Sunday. She explained that despite keeping up with her usual habits, her body began shifting as she got older — something she found difficult to accept at the time.
"I'm, like, 'Oh, I cannot stand this changing body.' But that was so unhealthy," Twain said. "Who cannot look at themselves in the mirror?"
The "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" singer said the physical demands of the residency only compounded the issue, leaving her feeling out of control of her own body. "So, all of a sudden, I'm bloating and I'm definitely not in control," she recalled. "I can't just lose five pounds."
In response, Twain pushed herself harder physically rather than addressing her nutrition — a decision she now acknowledges left her malnourished and contributed to an onstage injury. "I was working my body more than I was feeding it to keep up with the strain," she said.
These days, the five-time Grammy winner credits an unlikely source for her shift in perspective: menopause. "Now I'm like, bring on the mirrors, I'm going to look at myself all day long!" she told the Times, adding that the experience taught her acceptance. "Menopause has been very good for me because I've learned that some things you cannot control."
The reflection echoes comments Twain made back in 2022, when she posed topless for the cover of her single "Waking Up Dreaming." At the time, she described the experience as liberating, telling People she felt no need to "hide behind the clothes" at her age.
"I was just so unashamed of my new body," she said then. "I'm not even emotional about it; I just feel OK about it."
