Shania Twain revealed that she suffered from “blackouts” and “dizzy” spells on stage before learning she had Lyme disease.
The country superstar — who was bitten by a tick while riding a horse in 2003 — said in her new Netflix documentary that her symptoms were “pretty scary.”
“Before I was diagnosed, I was very dizzy on stage,” she said in “Not Just a Girl.” “I lost my balance, I was afraid I would fall off the podium.”
She added, “I had these very, very, very millisecond blackouts, but regularly, every minute or every 30 seconds.”
Not only did the chronic illness affect Twain’s ability to perform, but the queen of country pop developed dysphonia, which caused her to temporarily lose her voice.
“My voice was never the same,” she recalls. “I thought I’d lost my voice forever. I thought that was it [and] I would never sing again.”
Twain underwent multiple invasive surgeries after losing her voice.
She told Extra in 2019: “I had to have surgery that was very intense and it’s open throat surgery, very different from vocal cord surgery. I had to have two, so that was very, very, very difficult and I survived that – meaning I survived emotionally – and I’m just ready to move on.”
While she was in the midst of her battle with her health problems, the country singer also learned that her husband of 15 years, Robert “Mutt” Lange, was cheating on her with her boyfriend and personal assistant, Marie-Anne Thiébaud.
“In that search for the cause of this lack of control over my voice and this change in my voice, I faced a divorce. My husband is leaving me for another woman,” the “You’re Still the One” singer said in the document. ”
A strange turn of events allowed the five-time Grammy winner to find love — and her voice — again.
After going through such a difficult time together, Marie-Anne’s ex-husband, Frédéric Thiébaud, and Twain bonded in 2010 over their shared grief.
The couple’s relationship quickly became romantic and they married a year later.