Shania Twain was raised by her stepdad. He abused her from the age of 10.

Content warning: This story includes descriptions of child sexual abuse and domestic violence that may be distressing to some readers.

For country music icon Shania Twain, her start in life was anything but glossy.

She grew up in the mining town of Timmins, Ontario, about 700 kilometres north of Toronto. It was a place where there wasn't a whole lot of wealth, and for Twain's family - which included her mum Sharon, stepfather Jerry, and their five children - they often struggled financially.

"There was always a problem paying electric bills, the rent, always a problem buying groceries, so it was just this struggle all the time," she said in her Netflix film Not Just A Girl.

"It's very hard to concentrate when your stomach's rumbling. I would certainly never have humiliated myself enough to reach out and ask for help and say, 'You know, I'm hungry'. I didn't have the courage to do that."

But it wasn't just financial difficulties that the Twain family experienced. 

Her stepfather, Jerry, legally adopted Twain when she was four, after her mother Sharon married him. Twain never knew who her biological father was. From a young age, all Twain can recall is the abuse Jerry levelled against everyone in their household.

Watch the trailer for Netflix's Shania Twain Not Just A Girl. Post continues below.

Speaking to Nightline in 2011, Twain recalled the moment where Jerry - the man she called 'dad' - forced her mum's head into the toilet bowl.

"I thought he'd killed her," Twain said. "I really thought she was drowned, or dead, or that he had just smashed her head in and she was never going to wake up. She looked dead. She was unconscious, she was limp, hanging from his, you know, he had her hair in his hands.

"So I'd gone though the shock and experience of really believing my mother had died at that moment. Also, through the humiliation of how I thought she had been killed, by drowning in a toilet seat. It was obviously very hard to take."

The abuse wasn't just aimed at Sharon, with Twain herself often falling victim when trying to save her mother from Jerry's violent behaviour.

Last month, Twain told The Sunday Times she once threw a chair at her stepfather.

"I think a lot of that was anger, not courage. And it took a long time to manage that anger. You don't want to be somebody that attacks me on the street," she said. "Because I will f**king rip your head off if I get the chance."

Given all she had witnessed and endured in childhood, Twain said that her association with feminity was warped as a result. Throughout the interview, Twain noted the lengths she would go to conceal her breasts when they started developing - traumatised by the image she had seen growing up of women consistently being abused.

It was also done in a bid to stop her stepfather Jerry from abusing her - "physically, psychologically, sexually". 

"I would flatten my boobs - 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. I hid myself. Because, oh my gosh, it was terrible - you didn't want to be a girl in my house."

Speaking to the US Today Show this week, Twain shared how being 'fondled' by her stepfather as a child led to negative feelings about her body.

"My [stepfather] would fondle me up on the top and make me go without a shirt and I was already maturing," she explained.

"I was just [feeling] this cringy horrible wanting to escape being in my own skin."

Amid all of this, it was clear to all that Twain had a gift for singing. By the age of eight, she was singing in bars to pay the family bills. But she never dreamed of 'fame' or 'stardom'. Instead, she longed for freedom.

"I wanted to escape. [From] everything. Violent home. Tensions. Nothing to eat. When you're hungry, you can't do anything about it but distract yourself from the hunger. And it really works. It's therapeutic. A lot of kids play with dolls and I played with words and sounds."

After graduating from school, Twain went on to pursue country music singing. 

Then in 1987, when she was 22, both her mum Sharon and stepfather Jerry died in a car crash. It left Twain the sole carer and guardian for her siblings. 

"It turned out that live performing was going to pay better, even at this level, at that little level, than working a regular day job," she said in her Netflix special. "It was pretty decent paying. I was able to support my brothers. I was able to make enough money to put food on the table singing at this resort."

And eventually, Twain's talent was made known to the music producing world - and after releasing her self-titled album in 1993, she hasn't often looked back. It was only recently that Twain decided to open up and share her full story with the world. 

Shania Twain today. Image: Getty.

Amid her success and without her stepfather's abuse, Twain said she began to emerge from her shell and feel in touch with her womanhood. 

"All of a sudden it was like, 'Well, what's your problem? You know, you're a woman and you have this beautiful body'," she told The Sunday Times.

"What was so natural for other people was so scary for me. I felt exploited, but I didn't have a choice now. I had to play the glamorous singer, had to wear my femininity more openly or more freely. And work out how I'm not gonna get groped, or raped by someone's eyes, you know, and feel so degraded."

In the end, Twain was seen as quite the feminist icon. It's something she has been determined to keep up ever since. 

As she said recently: "This is a historically challenging time for women to find space in many, many realms. I hope I can give other women the confidence not to fear feeling comfortable in their own skin. To refuse to be intimidated by anyone. It's a right and you need to own that.

"It is always a fight. But I'm not afraid to work harder. I'll just work harder."

Recently, she decided to pose nude on the cover of her new album, Queen Of Me, which helped her embrace her own skin.

"Doing the nude photography, it’s really about saying, I was abused as a kid," she told the Today Show. 

"I'm just in this moment now where I'm happy in my own skin – I mean it's the only skin I have... So it's time to start loving myself in my own skin and really embracing that and not being embarrassed of it or shy of it. This is who I am."

While the 57-year-old said it was "scary" posing completely nude, she said the experience was empowering. 

"It was really scary, but it was sort of like, you know, I don't really love my body."

"I don't love looking at myself in the mirror with the lights on or looking at the mirror at all at my body. So I said listen, I'm gonna face that fear."

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Throughout the years, much of Twain's family struggled just like she did, whether it be due to poverty, abuse, or substance dependence. 

"A third of my relatives were suicide deaths at young ages - that's not an exaggeration," she told The Guardian in 2018. "A number of them died prematurely just from neglect and alcohol abuse."

Reflecting on all that she's experienced and where she is today, Twain told Nightline that she's determined to share her story - to ensure others who have endured similar circumstances don't feel alone.

"I think I've remained very detached from my life to this point, almost as though it was a different person, every phrase I went through," she said. 

"So I've reconnected and said, no, this is actually who I am. I'm neither embarrassed of who I am, where I come from, what I've experienced, I'm not ashamed of it." 

If this brings up any issues for you, contact Bravehearts, an organisation dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse, on 1800 272 831.

If this has raised any issues for you, or if you just feel like you need to speak to someone, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service. 

This article was originally published on December 7, 2022, and was updated on January 6, 2023.

Feature Image: Getty/Mamamia.