Opening up about one of the hardest times of her life. Of course, ’90s country star LeAnn Rimes went through an extremely pubic extramarital affair with actor Eddie Cibrian in 2009, whom she met while working on the TV film Northern Lights. They were first seen getting close while eating at a restaurant, though Cibrian was married to Real Housewives star Brandi Glanville at the time, who was also the mother of his two sons. Rimes was married to renowned chef Dean Sheremet during that time, and it was Cibrian’s wife Brandi who ultimately first filed for divorce as a result of the affair in August of 2009 after eight years of marriage. Rimes and Cibrian got married in April of 2011, and they have been married ever since. During an interview with ABC at the time, Rimes expressed regret for how it all happened, but not “the outcome”: “I did one of the most selfish things that I possibly could do, in hurting someone else. I take responsibility for everything I’ve done. I hate that people got hurt. But I don’t regret the outcome.” Eventually, Rimes and Glanville reconciled, and Glanville said on the Hollywood Raw podcast in 2021 that she and LeAnn have a great relationship, and they were able to mend a lot of relationships and they now all spend most holidays together too: “The truth is LeAnn and I get along really well, we really do. I think we both [have] grown up quite a bit, and we both love Eddie’s parents. We both love the kids.” But before all of the public scandal, Rimes was a huge country music star, and she’s been around for quite some time, after bursting onto the scene as a 14-year old back in 1996. She won her first Grammy at young age of 14 for Best New Artist, and it’s clearly been a wild ride for her ever since. In a new interview with FlowSpace, Rimes opened up about the affair and how much she has changed as a person since then. She says going out on her own after being a child star was very lonely, but she had to do it and it has worked out for her in the long run: “I felt very alone in this world for a long time. I don’t necessarily feel that way anymore… I don’t feel like I’m ever in hiding. Starting as a child star [I had] all this protection. But it was like, if I want to live a fulfilling life, I’ve got to learn how to let that guard down. To me, it was either I was going to die, or I had to confront it. It was complete survival.” Rimes was also very honest about the affair, saying she understands how many women have been hurt on “both sides of that coin,” saying she has been cheated on before in addition to being some who cheated. Obviously it was wrong, but I think it’s pretty respectable that she can talk about it so openly now and own her mistakes because it really was a massive scandal at the time, for obvious reasons. She felt like so much of people’s hurt got projected onto her because it was such a big story for so long, and she has learned that she doesn’t have to carry “the world’s pain,” only her own and she’s changed because of that. I think cheating is so wrong and even worse when kids are involved, but the fact that she can talk about it and own up to it, rather than shy away and pretend like it never happened, is way more than what most people in her position would do: “I realized very quickly that there are a lot of women who’ve been hurt. Like, I’ve been on both sides of that coin—I’ve been cheated on, too, so I know that feeling. But so many women don’t know what to do with that anger… I was a target that was just easily projected upon. And once I realized that, things got a lot easier. Instead of taking it so personally, it’s like, look: This is not all my pain to carry. I know what I’m responsible for in the situation and making amends for that. But you know, the world’s pain is not mine to carry, and I think that really got thrown at me for a long time.” Rimes disappeared from the public eye for many years following this scandal, but more recently, she’s been featured at major country award shows like the ACM Awards recently, where she performed her hit “Blue.” She’s also been performing concerts, though her home life is much slower: “We are in bed by 7:30!” Cibrian called his wife “inspiring”: “She is so proactive in her health journey—emotionally, physically, spiritually. That it’s truly inspiring.” When this story broke almost fifteen years ago now, it was everywhere for so long, and obviously it was an awful situation for the parties involved, most importantly the young children, but it sounds like they’ve all made amends and are one big happy family, which was obviously best case scenario after it all happened the way it did. And Mrs. Cibrian has still got it, too… she’s always been such an incredible vocalist, and it’s good to hear her voice again and I hope she will continue to perform and put out new music. Here she is singing at the 60th ACM Awards: “Blue” The post LeAnn Rimes Says So Many Women Were Angry With Her After Public Affair With Now-Husband Eddie Cibrian: “I Was A Target” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.