At 60, Shania Twain is looking at love differently than she once did. Romance still matters, but after 15 years of marriage to Frédéric Thiébaud, the country superstar says something deeper has become even more meaningful: gratitude, emotional openness and the certainty that she has found the person she wants beside her for the rest of her life.

Twain describes Thiébaud, 55, as her “forever true love,” a relationship she believes was worth the difficult road that eventually brought them together.

“This is the love I’m going to grow old with,” Twain said, describing that realization as a beautiful feeling.

For the singer behind some of country-pop’s most recognizable love songs, those words carry particular weight. Her relationship with Thiébaud did not begin as a conventional celebrity romance. Instead, it developed after a painful period in both of their lives, when betrayal and the collapse of previous marriages unexpectedly connected them.

Years later, Twain says the bond they created has matured into something that goes far beyond excitement or attraction.

She believes romance will remain part of their relationship, but what stands out to her now is the depth of their connection and the gratitude she feels for having it.

Twain has even wondered how different her life might have been if she had met Thiébaud much earlier. She believes that if their paths had crossed when she was a teenager, he still could have become her lifelong partner.

Sometimes, she suggested, finding the right person simply takes years.

The Habit That Keeps Their Marriage Strong

For Twain, one quality in particular has played a major role in keeping their relationship healthy: Thiébaud’s willingness to communicate.

She credits her husband with regularly reminding them that communication cannot be allowed to disappear, especially when something is wrong.

Thiébaud, a former Nestlé executive and Swiss businessman, is comfortable discussing his emotions. Twain considers that openness one of his greatest strengths as a partner.

“He’s the greatest talker,” she said, explaining that he does not hold back when it comes to expressing how he feels.

That willingness to communicate makes Twain feel fortunate. In her view, having a partner who actively wants to keep conversations open can be an enormous gift in a marriage.

The interesting part is that husband and wife do not always respond to conflict in the same way.

Twain considers herself a good communicator, but her instinct when facing a marital problem can be more reflective. Rather than immediately discussing an issue, she may want time to think, take a walk, meditate on what happened or spend time alone with her guitar.

Thiébaud takes another approach.

He wants to talk.

He wants to understand the problem, work through it and find a solution.

Over the years, Twain has come to appreciate the value of that persistence. She acknowledges that his instinct to address an issue directly is often exactly what their marriage needs.

“Fred wants to talk about it,” she explained. “He wants to talk it through, and he wants to fix it.”

For Twain, the lesson is straightforward: difficult conversations may not always be comfortable, but avoiding them does not make the problem disappear.

A Love Story Born From an Extraordinary Heartbreak

The stability Twain describes today came after one of the most turbulent chapters of her personal life.

Before Thiébaud became her husband, Twain was married to music producer Robert “Mutt” Lange. Thiébaud was also married at the time, to Marie-Anne, who had been a close friend of Twain’s.

Twain and Lange’s marriage eventually ended amid allegations that Lange had an affair with Marie-Anne.

The circumstances left Twain and Thiébaud dealing with deeply painful changes at roughly the same time.

But from that shared experience, an unexpected relationship began to develop.

Twain and Thiébaud officially started dating in 2009. Their connection progressed quickly, but it was rooted in an understanding that had been built through hardship.

In December 2010, they became engaged.

Only about a month later, on New Year’s Day 2011, the couple married during an intimate sunset ceremony in Rincon, Puerto Rico.

Fifteen years later, Twain still sees the difficult circumstances surrounding the beginning of their relationship as part of what made their connection unusually profound.

Reflecting on that period in 2022, she explained that people who have endured similar emotional wounds can sometimes develop a rare kind of bond. She and Thiébaud were not simply beginning another romance; they became important parts of each other’s healing.

That was especially significant because Twain had once believed marriage was no longer in her future.

After her divorce, she had convinced herself she would never marry again. She could easily have imagined writing songs about refusing to fall in love another time.

Then Thiébaud changed that expectation.

The love she found with him, she said, became impossible for her to deny.

Finding Peace With the Past

Moving forward with Thiébaud also meant Twain had to eventually make peace with the life she had left behind.

Twain and Lange share a son, Eja, now 25, and continued co-parenting him after their separation.

Over time, Twain said the resentment she once carried faded.

By 2022, she described herself as having found peace and wondered whether that peace might also represent a form of forgiveness.

Her perspective on Lange became more nuanced. She did not excuse what happened within their marriage, but she became able to recognize other parts of their history together, including his contributions to an important period of her career and life.

Most importantly, their marriage gave them their son.

That ability to separate painful memories from meaningful ones became another sign of how far Twain had traveled emotionally.

Rather than allowing betrayal to permanently define her relationship with the past, she reached a place where anger no longer controlled the story.

And the future looked very different from the one she imagined when her first marriage ended.

Growing Older With the Person She Chose

Today, Twain’s description of a successful marriage is less about maintaining a perfect romance and more about building something durable.

She and Thiébaud have different personalities and different ways of processing problems. Twain may retreat temporarily into thought, music or solitude. Thiébaud would rather begin the conversation and keep going until they have dealt with what is bothering them.

Instead of treating those differences as obstacles, they have found a rhythm that works for them.

Their marriage has now lasted 15 years, transforming a relationship born during a period of upheaval into one of the most stable parts of Twain’s life.

Her career continues as well. Twain’s new album, Little Miss Twain, is now out, adding another chapter to a musical journey that has stretched across decades.

But behind the performer whose songs have explored love, independence, heartbreak and devotion is a woman who says she has discovered something increasingly precious with age.

For Twain, the blessing is not simply that she fell in love again after believing she never would.

It is that she found a partner willing to communicate, heal, grow and remain present through the years—and someone she can now confidently imagine beside her as they grow old together.