Shania Twain Raised Her 3 Younger Siblings after Their Parents Died in Car Crash — She Paused Career for Them

Shania Twain is one of the biggest musicians. She is loved for her versatility, which helped her sell millions of album copies. However, life was not easy for the singer; she watched her mother endure abuse and lost her parents in a car accident. Twain paused her career to care for her siblings but almost never went back to singing.

Shania Twain was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, in 1965. She is a musician famously known for musical melodies of country and pop.

Twain was one the most prominent crossover musicians and sold millions of album copies. Some of her hits include "You are Still the One," "From this Moment on," and "Any Man of Mine."

However, the singer sacrificed a lot for her success and survived many difficult moments. Nonetheless, she never gave up on her passion.

Shania Twain's Torturous Childhood

Twain's mother, Sharon, was first married to her father, Clarence Edwards. They had three daughters, one of them being Twain's sister Carrie who was featured in her 2011 documentaries.

However, Sharon and Edward divorced in 1967, and Twain's mother married Jerry Twain, who adopted her daughters. Jerry was the person Twain called dad for a long time. She was adopted by her stepfather when she was four, but Twain recalled how Jerry abused her and her mother.

Twain said watching her mother endure abuse was overwhelming for her as a child because she never knew if she or her mother would survive the next day. So, each day there was something to worry about.

The singer vividly remembered one incident where her father plunged her mother's head into the toilet. At that moment, Twain thought her mother would die or had already died because she saw how hard her head was smashed in the toilet.

Twain saw her mother hanging from the toilet with her hair tightly held by Jerry's hand, looking pale and unconscious. The singer eventually believed that her mother had died. She thought of how embarrassing her cause of death would have been and could not fathom the reality of recovering from such a shock.

Despite witnessing such a traumatic incident, Twain said the abuse never stopped, and each day she was confused about how someone she loved and respected could abuse her that much verbally and torture her mother to such an extent.

It was a mind-boggling experience for the singer because she respected how hard-working her stepfather was and thought he had set a good example, but the violence did not make sense to Twain.

The singer said most of her parents' arguments revolved around their financial struggles and revealed that she often went to school hungry,

Twain said she envied other kids' lunchboxes, but she never considered putting herself through the embarrassment of either asking for food or showing her hunger. However, Twain's problems did not end; the singer faced the unimaginable pain of losing her parents in a car accident.

Shania Twain Paused Her Career to Care For Her Family

When Twain lost her parents to a tragic car accident on November 1, 1987, she moved back home to care for her younger siblings.

The singer moved her family to Huntsville, Ontario, where she provided for them by performing at a nearby Deerhurst Resort. The thought of quitting her entire music career was strong, but Twain chose to keep fighting and rekindled her love of singing again.

Once her siblings were old enough to move out and live on their own, Twain compiled her songs into a demo tape and was noticed by many record labels, one of them being Mercury Nashville Records. In just a few months, the singer was signed with them.

Before changing her surname, Twain's birth name was Eileen Regina Edwards, but when her singing career was on the rise, she changed her name to Shania Twain. The name is reportedly an Objiwa word meaning "on the way." Five years after her parent's death, she built a successful career and became one of the biggest musicians.

From her mother's marriage with Clarence, Twain's other sister, Jill, was revealed in her biography "On My Way." She had already started her life and moved out when their mother died.

However, Jill reportedly faced a few legal dilemmas after allegedly burning down her ex's property. The singer had a fallout with another sister Carrie, but the siblings rekindled their relationship, "I need my sister, and my sister needs me," said Carrie.

During her marriage with Jerry, Sharon welcomed a boy named Mark. He had the same musical interests as his sister and played the drums from a young age.

Mark was in the car accident that killed his parents, but he survived. He and his brother Darryl were both in their teens when Sharon and Jerry died.

However, Mark was also involved in a few discrepancies with the law; he was arrested a few times in his 20s for accounts such as assaulting a police officer and breaking into a car dealership.

Nonetheless, Mark's current life has been private. In Twain's book "Shian Twain: The Biography," the singer mentioned that her brother worked in the computer field.

Sharon and Jerry adopted Twain's youngest brother Darryl after his biological mother died. Jerry was Darryl's uncle, but he had raised him as one of his own.

Darryl also got into trouble growing up. He was reportedly arrested for being in possession of cocaine, but he was set free when the judge decided to withdraw his case. However, Twain has not mentioned her brother's arrest, and nothing more is known about his current life.