Shania Twain Says Menopause Helped Her Recover From an Unhealthy Body Image

Country star Shania Twain says she once did “very unhealthy things” to stay thin, but now credits menopause with improving how she sees her body. In an interview published Saturday in The Times, the 60-year-old said her relationship with her appearance had long been “toxic,” and that in 2019, while performing her Las Vegas residency, she reached a point where she could not look at herself in the mirror.

“I stopped looking at myself in the mirror. I hated my body,” she said. Twain said aging changed her body in ways her old routines could not handle. “Suddenly I was bloated and completely out of control. I could no longer just lose two or three kilos,” she recalled. She said she pushed her body harder than she fed it, and that the diet and exercise regimen she used “to be thinner” left her undernourished and worsened an injury she had while performing onstage.

Twain said her outlook is now the opposite. “Now I say, bring on the mirrors. I can look at myself all day,” she joked. She said menopause was “very good” for her because it taught her that some things cannot be controlled. This is not the first time she has spoken about body acceptance.

In 2023, she told the New York Post that she posed nude for the cover of her sixth studio album, Queen of Me, because she wanted to capture a moment when she felt more confident than ever. In 2022, she told PEOPLE she hoped to inspire women of all ages to accept themselves and feel secure in their bodies, including girls as young as 12 who are just beginning to develop.