SHE’S STILL THE ONE!
Risky surgery, infidelity, Covid pneumonia – no matter what life throws her way, country pop queen Shania Twain just keeps doing what she does best
YOU can’t keep a good girl down sounds like it could be lyrics from one of her multiple megahits but it’s more apt to describe her resilience.
Because Shania Twain, she of the bighitting ballads and sultry leopard-print strut, keeps coming back no matter how many times she’s knocked down.
Covid-induced pneumonia leaves her worrying for her life? Write a song about it.
Lyme disease leaves her voiceless? Get risky surgery to deal with it.
Husband cheats on her with her best friend? Fall in love with best friend’s husband, marry him and live a gloriously happy life.
Life is for living, the 57-year-old singer believes. And she’s ready to live it to the fullest.
Shania is releasing new music for the first time since 2017 and posed half-nude for the album cover.
“It’s a statement of being comfortable in my own skin,” she says.
“And just being really myself.”
Shania was devastated when she discovered her husband, Robert “Mutt” Lange, was cheating. The couple married in 1993 and in 2001 had a son, Eja (pronounced Asia), and moved to Switzerland where they led a quiet life.
Then in 2008 rumours surfaced the Durban-raised record producer, who’d worked with acts such as AC/DC and Céline Dion, was having an affair with Shania’s best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud, who’d been hired as his personal assistant and interpreter.
Mutt and Marie-Anne denied it, but later Marie-Anne’s husband, Frédéric, told Shania it was all true.
“I thought for sure he was making it up,” Shania says. “But he said, ‘You know I have proof if you want it and I’ve been following it now for a few weeks and I’ve got hotel bills and all kinds of details.’
“He said he’d come across a garter belt and sexy lingerie in luggage for a trip Marie -Anne was supposed to be taking alone.”
Shania was devastated. In 2011 she wrote a memoir, From This Moment On, in which she admitted there were times she wanted to die.
LOOKS like rapper KANYE ‘YE’ WEST has stirred up the controversy pot yet again. He kicked of his rant-bunctious week when he debuted a new shirt design with the slogan White Lives Matter as part of his new Yeezy collection at a showing at Paris Fashion Week.
His design, a parody on the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement slogan, has riled up everyone from human rights activists and celebrities to the fashion industry.
Ye (45) arrived at his show wearing the shirt and models, including singer Lauryn Hill’s daughter and Bob Marley’s granddaughter Selah Marley, walked the runway in the designs. Conservative commentator Candace Owens proudly posed with the rapper backstage.
Following the backlash, Ye doubled down and went on to post that the Black Lives Matter movement was a scam and that everyone knows it. This isn’t the first time he’s leaned to the right – he’s often spotted wearing a Make America Great Again baseball cap in support of former Republican president Donald Trump.
Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, who also attended the show, took to her Instagram
Live to criticise the rapper and soon came under fire.
“There is no excuse, there is no art here,” she said at the time. “I do think if you asked Kanye, he’d say there was art, and revolution, and all of the things in that T-shirt. There isn’t.”
The rapper retaliated by saying that Gabriella isn’t a fashion person in a pic of the editor critiquing an outfit the stylist wore to a recent fashion event. He’s since deleted the pic, but went on to cryptically post: ‘This is War’.
Model Gigi Hadid and actresses Gabrielle Union and Jodie Turner-Smith showed support for the Vogue editor, slamming Ye’s bullying tactics and praising her unique style and voice.
“I WONDER WHAT GIGI AND VENUS’S PERSPECTIVES WERE WHEN I DIDN’T KNOW WHERE MY CHILD WAS ON HER BIRTHDAY,” he then posted in all capitals on his Instagram.
He was referring to an incident earlier this
– GABRIELLA KAREFAJOHNSON ‘There is no excuse, there is no art here’
He had a bit of a setback when his immune system took a knock, but DJ and presenter MARK PILGRIM (53) isn’t giving up in his battle against cancer.
“My immune system crashed about three weeks ago, but that happens from chemotherapy. There’s always a point in chemo where you have to stop, and you don’t always know where that point is until it happens,” the cancer warrior tells YOU.
Mark had a persistent cough, so doctors put him on antibiotics to treat what was thought to be bronchitis. After two weeks of bed rest and various scans later, they determined that his right lung had collapsed due to fluid build-up in the lung cavity.
“I wasn’t able to breathe when I talked. Bear in mind, I talk for a living. I was like a pianist who suddenly had no fingers,” Mark says. “We all have about 300ml of fluid in our cavity – mine filled up about 5,5 litres. They drained two litres out a few days ago and straight away the top of the right lung started working again.
“They’re going to do 2 litres at a time for a week or so. But I’m feeling much better now.”
One positive is that Mark no longer has tumours in his spine or in his leg, and the one in his lung has shrunk significantly, thanks to the various treatments he’s undergoing.
“I’m also on immunotherapy and from next week I’ll be on a drug from the Netherlands, which is a targeted therapy,” Mark says.
He’s still taking about 34 tablets in the morning daily, which are a combination of non-prescription meds like medicinal mushroom tablets and vitamins. Mark is also still sticking to a strict diet – no gluten, sugar, dairy, fruit, coffee or alcohol, and no acidic food.
His vegetables are strictly organic and once in a while he’ll indulge in a small portion of fish or chicken.
Having a positive outlook is helping him in his attempt to kick cancer to the kerb – it’s his second bout, having survived testicular cancer 33 years ago.
“The prognosis wasn’t great from the beginning, so I’m defying the odds and we’ll continue on this path,” says the Hot 102.7 mid-morning show host.
“Not every day is a good day. I always say to people, strength lies in the ability to acknowledge a moment of sadness or weakness – have a cry – but uncurl yourself and stand up again the next day.”
ABOVE: Doctors drained two litres of fluid from his right lung and have drained more since. RIGHT: His intense treatment regimen includes radiation therapy as well as chemotherapy.
TENNIS ace RAFAEL NADAL (36) and his wife, MARIA FRANCISCA PERELLO (34), are the proud parents of a bouncing baby boy. The childhood sweethearts recently welcomed their son in their hometown of Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and fans were delighted to hear he’d been named after his famous dad. Baby Rafael Nadal Perello certainly has big shoes to fill!
Speculation about Maria’s pregnancy started in June when eagle-eyed observers noted that she was wearing loose-fitting clothing during the French Open.
The pregnancy wasn’t easy, with Maria being admitted to a private clinic in their hometown for a few weeks back in August. Doctors considered operating on the mom to be, but then decided it wasn’t necessary. She was then admitted as a precaution and remained in the clinic to rest completely.
Months of personal and professional challenges weighed heavily on the Spaniard. “Now I have to go home, I have more important things than tennis to attend to. Decisions will be made based on how everything goes in my personal life, which comes before my professional life,” he said after being knocked out of the US Open in August.
“It’s been a bit difficult for a few months, but I want to finish the year with something very important, that is my first child.”
Last month he withdrew from the Laver Cup to be by his wife’s side as concern grew that Maria could give birth earlier than expected. In the end she gave birth at 37 weeks.
Rafa has made no secret that he would love to be a dad. “I would love to have children – boys, girls – I’m a person who loves kids and I’m a family guy,” he said in an interview.
The couple’s love story started in 2005 when she was 17 years old and he was 19. Rafa finally popped the question after 14 years together during a romantic trip to Rome in 2018. Their wedding, the following year, was a star-studded event held at La Fortaleza in Spain with 350 guests attending.