Shania Twain revealed she is finally coming to terms with getting older after years of battling self-confidence issues over her body. The country music icon, 57, got candid about aging gracefully in a new interview with The Mirror, claiming it took a lot of reflection– and a nude photo shoot — to learn how to love her body. “I was freaking out inside but nobody knew it,” the “That Don’t Impress Me Much” singer said. “Now, I look at myself naked and I like the honesty about myself.”
“There were times I did like turning the lights off as all I could see were the imperfections so I said, ‘OK, how can I face this and get this to a point where I accept it?’” she continued. “So I did a nude photography session to find a more healthy and realistic perspective on myself.”
The photo test was a such a success that Shania said she wanted to share what she had learned from the experience. “I say you should look in the mirror and be fine with that,” she explained. “I am only going to get older and saggier – if I hate myself now then what state am I going to be in in five or 10 years?”
The superstar musician also revealed the self-doubt began when she was a teen struggling with her changing body. “When I was a teenager, my boobs got so big. I could not stop them from bouncing so I had to strap them down and wear two bras and loose clothing,” she explained. “I just did not want these boobs and I thought I wanted a breast reduction but they settled down. I thought, ‘It is a good thing I did not do that. This is how I am supposed to look'”
In another anecdote about her health, Shania recalled having to be airlifted to a hospital in Switzerland after contracting COVID-19 and pneumonia in 2020. Speaking with The Mirror in February, she said the “very scary” incident took place during the height of the pandemic while she was staying at her home in Lake Geneva. “It was progressively getting worse. My vital signs were getting worse, and in the end, I had to be air evacuated,” Shania explained. “It took several days to start building up any antibodies at all, so it was a very dangerous time and very scary.”
“I made it through and I’m just so grateful,” she said, before acknowledging her good fortune. “I thought, ‘Wow, if I was living alone in a more isolated scenario, I don’t know what would have happened.’ My heart goes out to people who don’t have that support to help them get the right care,” she explained.