Shania Twain Reveals Heartbreaking Childhood Trauma: 'Touched Inappropriately So Many Times'

Country music superstar Shania Twain recently revealed that a desire to become a bodybuilder stemmed from the trauma of being "touched inappropriately so many times" as a child.

Shania Twain opened up about her struggles with body image and how the abuse she endured influenced her perception of herself.

“I was always insecure about my body. As a female, throughout my youth [I was] touched inappropriately so many times [and] I was in abusive situations where you hate being a woman,” Twain shared with Us Weekly.

She explained that this deep-seated discomfort led her to imagine a life where she could become a "big, strong man that nobody was going to f-ck around with."

Her candid confession shed light on how the trauma impacted her as a young girl. "My mother goes, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ and I said, ‘A bodybuilder,’" Twain recalled. “No one was going to touch my arm or my a-- or anything unless I was OK with it. I was hiding all through my teens.”

The "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" singer admitted that she "hated having boobs" and "hated having hips," struggling with the changes in her body as she grew up. She attributed some of this insecurity to the beauty standards of her youth, where being "very, very thin" was associated with "elegance and feminine beauty."

This isn't the first time Twain has spoken about the abuse she endured.

In a 2022 interview with the Sunday Times, the 59-year-old revealed more about the physical and sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her late stepfather, Jerry Twain.

“I hid myself and I would flatten my boobs,” she said. “I would wear bras that were too small for me, and I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me. Make it easier to go unnoticed.”

Twain described a tumultuous household where being a girl felt dangerous.

She often fought back against Jerry when he was abusive toward her and her mother, Sharon Morrison. Tragically, both Jerry and Sharon died in a car crash in November 1987.

It wasn’t until her mid-20s that Twain began to appreciate her body and build the confidence she exudes today. “By the time I had my record contracts I was the kind of woman that when I walked in the room, it’s like, don’t even get any closer. It was clear in my body language,” she explained.

Twain hopes that her story can inspire young girls to develop their own sense of strength and self-assurance. “I think maybe what young girls can learn too is to exude that confidence,” she said, turning her painful past into a powerful message of resilience.

"I wish I’d come to this so much earlier, but I think referencing yourself to others is dangerous," she continued. "For me, walking on the beach in a bathing suit is like, 'What was I waiting for?' Of course I don’t have the body I imagined because my image of the perfect body is a supermodel with no cellulite, perfect proportions and a beautiful stride. This is just not me. You can wish a lot of time away ignoring what you actually look like. Just get real with yourself."

Shania Twain also talked about how her country-pop blend, paired with bold, pro-woman lyrics, didn't quite fit the traditional mold of country music at the time.

“It was its own thing,” the 59-year-old music icon told the outlet. She admitted that the industry had little confidence in her ability to connect with audiences. “What I was saying, what I was wearing, how I was performing,  all of it.”

But Twain never considered abandoning her vision. “I only ever cared about being as original as possible and being myself,” Twain explained. “There is no other me. That’s my biggest power.”

Twain went on to sell over 100 million records worldwide, earning her place as the best-selling female country artist of all time. Her groundbreaking work created a blueprint for future crossover stars like Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves, and Kelsea Ballerini, all of whom have credited Twain as a significant influence.