Country singer Shania Twain has reached out to her fans online to assure them she's coping well, a year after her painful split from producer husband Robert 'Mutt' Lange.

The star's marital problems hit the headlines in May 2008 when Lange's affair with Twain's former assistant and friend, Marie-Anne Thiebaud, was exposed in the press.

She has been keeping a relatively low profile since, returning to her home in Switzerland with the couple's seven-year-old son Eja D'Angelo and focusing on her music. But Twain is eager to put concerned devotees at ease with a new message to her fans.

In a post on her official website, she writes, "(I'm) managing very well... I'm enjoying my child, friends and family like I haven't in years and its great... I've been experiencing and seeing new things every day, living life with a different and more optimistic attitude." She admits some good has come out of her personal struggles - she's been pouring her heart out in new songs.

Twain adds, "The personal issues that took place just over a year ago have been well documented, and there's no need to go into more detail here. Since then, I've been inspired by my pain to write and use writing as a therapy through the suffering. I truly wouldn't wish this on anybody as a means to get inspired, but it's been a productive period with so much emotion trying to find its way out."

"As many things as there have been to write about through this difficult time in my life, healing is serious business and has taken a lot of the wind out of my sails, slowing me down at times."

And Twain reveals she's been making use of all her down time by fulfilling lifelong ambitions that she never had the opportunity to pursue before: "I've jumped out of an airplane at 10,000 feet, I'm riding Spanish and Arabian horses, traveling to exotic places, I've been deep sea diving for the first time! I pull the odd all-nighter, read more books, listen to Eja's favorite music with him, LOUD (ironically his favorite band is AC/DC) and basically I'm enjoying life."

Image © Mercury Nashville

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