“Vanity is not worth torture,” Twain says in this week’s PEOPLE cover story
Credit: Victoria Will
NEED TO KNOW
- Shania Twain opens up to PEOPLE about why she’s embracing menopause
- “I’m just learning every phase that I go through, and I adapt,” she says
- The icon’s new album Little Miss Twain is out now
Shania Twain is embracing menopause.
The country superstar recalled how this change of life was at the root of a 2019 incident in which she sustained an injury and had to be carried off stage in Las Vegas.
“I ripped two muscles in my thigh, and a lot of it was dehydration because I wasn’t really adapted to the Nevada climate,” Twain, 60, tells PEOPLE. “I wasn’t drinking enough water, I was not eating enough protein, and I was really going through a raging period of menopause. I was just getting this bloat that I didn’t understand.”
Credit: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty
At the time, the “Faded Blue Jeans” performer was malnourished because she was cutting back on certain foods, she has said.
“I wasn’t eating enough salt, I wasn’t retaining any water, and I wasn’t drinking enough water. It was just this perfect storm for disaster, and I ripped these muscles,” says Twain.
She struggled with the physical changes she was noticing as well.
“I go from being this young, stunning figure, beautiful skin, everything’s in the right place [to a] time in my life where I couldn’t look in the mirror because all I could see were imperfections and not wanting to be that curvy thing,” Twain recalls.
The “Dirty Rosie” artist has since shifted her perspective and made it a priority to take care of herself during menopause.
“It is well-being first, always,” says Twain. “To becoming an older woman and now looking in the mirror, no problem. I’m like, I just have to get over this because every day that goes by, I’m getting older; the dips and bulges and the sags are just getting more and more prominent.”
Her mantra now is to “enjoy every day for what it is.”
“I’m not trying to be 30. I’m not trying to be 25, and I won’t be ever again. That’s my own fault for not looking in the mirror when I was younger, and shame on me. I encourage everybody: enjoy yourself the way you are right now and love it,” says Twain.
She adds, “Vanity is not worth torture.”
When it comes to menopause, Twain has learned to go with the flow.
“I’m just learning every phase that I go through, and I adapt,” she says. “I can’t play tennis like a maniac the way I used to in my 30s because I’m going to break my body. My wrist started to go because I planted so many trees in my youth, and I’ve got this big carpal lump. The first thing to go for me in tennis was my backhand. So I’m like, ‘It’s time to take on the double-handed backhand.’ And it’s more wicked than my one-handed backhand!”
Over the years, Twain has endured negative comments about her appearance. But the icon remains unbothered.
“My body is not shameable. That courage comes with time and maturity,” she says. “Body shaming is nothing that’s going to affect me.”
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Last month, the “Still the One” performer opened up about how menopause has been beneficial for her in an interview with The Times.
“Menopause has been very good for me because I’ve learned that some things you cannot control,” Twain said at the time.
In a 2023 interview with the New York Post, she also noted that menopause taught her “to quickly say, ‘You know, it may only get worse. So just love yourself now. Just get over your insecurities — they’re standing in your way. And fear is standing in your way.’”
Credit: Victoria Will
Twain’s new album Little Miss Twain is out now.
For more on Shania Twain, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
Read the full article here