Shania Twain reveals she was ‘kicked around’ by her parents in ‘very violent’ childhood home
Shania Twain revealed that she grew up in a “very violent” home where she and her sisters were physically abused by their parents as she shared harrowing details about her childhood.
The “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” singer, 60, said she and her sisters, Jill and Carrie Ann, regularly witnessed fights between their mom, Sharon, and stepdad, Jerry Twain, while growing up in Ontario, Canada, and were also “kicked around” themselves.
“They loved each other. They went through so many ups and downs together, but they fought a lot, and they got violent often,” Twain told Thursday’s episode of NPR’s “Wild Card with Rachel Martin.”
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Shania Twain revealed she grew up in a “very violent” home where she and her sisters were abused by their parents.Kevin Mazur Getty Images for SiriusXM
When Martin asked whether that violence extended to Twain and her sisters, the Grammy winner replied, “Yeah, with me too.”
“If I was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, definitely,” she continued.
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“I mean, both my parents were pretty harsh physically. We definitely got smacked around a lot, and kicked around sometimes, literally kicked around.”
Twain, who was born Eilleen Edwards, said her parents “hurt each other the most.”
“It was very violent. So my mom, you know, she would lose clumps of hair. She was bruised often in the face and … it was pretty bad sometimes. I mean, our house would shake. Those walls would shake,” she recalled.
Twain said her mom, Sharon, and stepdad, Jerry Twain, “kicked” her and her sisters around while they were growing up.Today Show/NBC
“It’s very traumatic. It gets loud and scary, like a really bad thunderstorm.”
The country icon said her mom repeatedly tried to leave her husband, but the family never managed to break free.
“My mother did often try to leave. She did leave — we did leave — but he’d always find us, or she’d always give in and go back,” Twain said. “It was a cycle.”
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Twain previously alleged that Jerry sexually abused her beginning when she was 10 years old.Shania Twain/Facebook
Sharon divorced Twain’s biological father Clarence Edwards when the future superstar was 2. She later married Jerry Twain, who adopted Shania and her sisters.
Twain was just 22 when Sharon and Jerry were killed in a head-on car crash near Wawa, Ontario, on Nov. 1, 1987, as her music career was beginning.
The “You’re Still the One” singer has spoken about her childhood before, most extensively in her 2011 memoir “From This Moment On.”
In the book, Twain alleged Jerry physically and emotionally abused her for years and said she watched him repeatedly beat her mom.
