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Shania Twain, 60, Says She Once ‘Hated’ Her Changing Body
Now she says menopause helped her make peace with what she could not control
Shania Twain attends the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas in May 2026. The singer has said menopause helped her rethink her relationship with her body.
Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Sipa USA via AP Images
Key takeaways
- Shania Twain told The Times that in 2019, she stopped looking at herself in the mirror for a while.
- The country music star said menopause taught her that some physical changes cannot be controlled.
- Her seventh album, Little Miss Twain, will be out July 24.
Shania Twain says menopause pushed her into a body-image crisis before it helped her find a way out.
The country music star, 60, told The Times in an interview published June 13 that she struggled with body changes during her 2019 Las Vegas residency.
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“I stopped looking at myself in the mirror. I hated my body,” she said. “I’m, like, ‘Oh, I cannot stand this changing body.’ But that was so unhealthy. Who cannot look at themselves in the mirror?”
She said her body was changing in ways she could not manage. “So all of a sudden I’m bloating, and I’m definitely not in control. I can’t just lose 5 pounds,” she said.
Her response at the time was not healthy, she said. “I was working my body more than I was feeding it to keep up with the strain,” Twain said. She said the routine “to be thinner” left her “malnourished” and worsened an onstage injury.
Her perspective changed when she stopped treating control as the goal. She had pushed her body harder, but fighting the changes left her depleted. “Menopause has been very good for me because I’ve learned that some things, you cannot control,” she said. Now instead of avoiding her reflection, she said, “bring on the mirrors, I’m going to look at myself all day long!”
Twain’s experience tracks with what many women report during menopause. AARP research found that 53 percent of U.S. women in some phase of menopause say it has had a negative or mixed impact on their sense of self, and women in perimenopause are more likely than those further along to feel that way.
Twain has described the shift in personal terms. While speaking to the New York Post in 2023 about posing nude for the cover art for her sixth album, Queen of Me, she described the same shift from hiding her body to accepting it.
“I used to hate my body. So when my body was young and, I guess, maybe one wouldn’t be afraid of exhibiting it, I was hiding it a lot,” Twain said. “I’m perfectly the way I should be. This is the way I should be at my age. I’m fine with it. And I’m not afraid of it anymore. It’s all good.”
More on menopause
Twain’s comments point to questions many women have at midlife: What symptoms should you expect during menopause, which ones may need attention and what can make the transition easier? AARP’s menopause guide breaks down symptoms, treatments and expert-backed ways to manage the transition.
That confidence comes with a career still in high gear. Twain is a five-time Grammy winner with 18 nominations, according to the Recording Academy, with wins for era-defining songs including “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and “Come On Over.” In May, she hosted the Academy of Country Music Awards for the first time, a role she told Billboard was “a chance for me to just get back with everybody,” including newer artists she had not yet met. She is releasing her latest album, Little Miss Twain, on July 24 and is reportedly producing a Sony Pictures biopic about her life.
For Twain, the latest chapter is arriving with a sense of excitement. Speaking to People in May about Little Miss Twain, she said the album is a “reflection of my childhood” and the “environment I grew up in.” At 60, she added, “I feel good and I’ve got to celebrate that. I’m grateful to have made it this far.”
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