"I’m responsible for myself. I take the good with the bad,” Shania Twain said.
Trigger Warning: The following content contains descriptions of child sexual violence, which may be distressing for readers.
It took bravery for country music legend Shania Twain to pose naked for the first time. The 57-year-old opened up about her journey toward accepting her body when she was creating the artwork for her album Queen of Me, featuring a nude picture shoot, in a conversation with TODAY's Hoda Kotb for the Making Space with Hoda Kotb podcast. "Forget the sag," was her personal slogan.
“I’m only going to get more saggy,” she told Hoda. “It’s also one of those things like, I better enjoy this moment right now because I know I don’t look like I did when I was 20.”
The five-time Grammy winner admitted that working to be more "relaxed and comfortable" in her own skin during the photo shoot was a “real leap of faith.” The singer shared that she doesn't even know "where I got the courage to do it,” adding that she “just got fed up with judging myself.” The singer added that she thinks she has arrived at a stage in her life where plastic surgery is not something she would even consider, sharing that “Maybe that was probably part of what pushed me to go, ‘OK, it’s time to start loving yourself in your own skin.’”
Twain said on the podcast episode that she is currently "enjoying the search" of discovering and loving herself with the release of Queen of Me on February 13. She remarked, “It couldn’t be more fitting for where I’m really at in my own mind. I’m responsible for myself. I take the good with the bad.”
Shania Twain on posing nude: "I am queen of me." Watch the full PEOPLE cover special: https://t.co/nUuhtuyFuC pic.twitter.com/dcW2FSbMOo
— People (@people) December 22, 2022
The singer also revealed on TODAY earlier this month that posing nude wasn't only a show of empowerment for her body image, but also gave her the means to confront some of the trauma she had endured as a child. She has previously shared that her stepfather was abusive, and her childhood was very traumatic.
Twain recently told The Sunday Times in December that she would flatten her breasts to protect herself from her stepfather's abuse. "I would 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. Because, oh, my gosh, it was terrible — you didn’t want to be a girl in my house," she told the outlet.
"Forget the sag” is my new favorite motto 😜https://t.co/3TVfwHN0Qw
— Know Your Value (@KnowYourValue) January 31, 2023
“Doing the nude photography is really about saying listen, I was abused when I was a kid. ... This cringey, horrible wanting to escape being in my own skin — I’m just in this mode now where, no, no no, I’m happy in my own skin,” she said.
“It’s the only skin I have,” she added. “I don’t have a choice. Otherwise, I’m going to hate myself for the rest of my life. So it’s time to start loving myself in my own skin and really embracing that and not be embarrassed or shy of it and this is who I am.”
References:
https://www.today.com/popculture/music/shania-twain-posed-nude-queen-of-me-album-rcna67932
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Phillip Faraone
