LeAnn Rimes Says She’s “In Awe” Of Everything She & Husband Eddie Cibrian Have Gone Through Since 2009 Cheating Scandal: “We’re Very Normal”

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They’ve certainly come a long way.

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.”

She has since spoken about it publicly, many years later, obviously, and has admitted to the affair and owned up to it. In an interview not too long ago, she explained that 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.”

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.

She has taken a big step back from the music industry ever since all of that stuff happened, but LeAnn sat down with US Weekly, for the cover story this week, where she reflected on how much they two of them have “endured” together. She says she’s “in awe” of everything they’ve gone through:

“If I look back at our relationship, I’m really in awe of the things that we’ve endured and how we’ve grown together. The place we’re in now is just so comfortable and calm and quiet. We really find our quiet together. That’s really important.”

Honestly, I think a lot of people are probably surprised they’re even still together, but Rimes says she and Cibrian actually have a pretty normal relationship these days:

“We love doing simple things together. We’re very normal. That normalcy is what allowed us to have this relationship in this crazy business. Our relationship is better than it’s ever been. I really do have very major moments of gratitude.”

Rimes is currently starring in the new ABC drama 9-1-1: Nashville, and she admitted that she really doesn’t ever go back and listen to her old music or think about it too much. She also discussed how strange it was to be a child star with so much success at an incredibly young age, saying she always “felt like an outcast” because of it and it was clearly a tough gig to survive the music and entertainment industry like that:

“I got more comfortable telling my truth; I knew there were other people that were going through the same situations. As I got older and started writing my own material, it was so important to me to be authentic in that.

I was this kid in a very adult world, so I always felt like an outcast. The whole industry had this camaraderie that I wasn’t included in because I was so young. That’s why [doing] The Voice in Australia and in the U.K. was so important.

It was important for me to go on those shows and be able to mentor other people, because I didn’t have that.”

It’s been quite a journey for both Rimes and Cibrian, but now in her 40’s and much more settled into her life, it sounds like she’s been able to find peace and really enjoy the fruits of her success after going through so much in her private life in a very public way.

And it looks like she hasn’t completely closed the door on her music journey, as Rimes recently played at Country Calling Music Festival and she sounded great: