Shania Twain splits from husband (+video)

Reuters

GOT ME GOOD: Shania Twain has split from her husband, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, it has been reported.

Relevant offers

Two of New Zealand's best-known immigrants, Canadian country star Shania Twain and reclusive record producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, are splitting up after 14 years of marriage.

People magazine reported the news, quoting a spokesman as saying, "This is a private matter and there will be no further comment at this time."

Twain, 42, and Lange, who is in his late 50s, have a six-year-old son named Eja.

The couple bought the leases for 24,700 hectares of rugged and scenic farmland, near Wanaka, for $21.4 million.

They recently gifted New Zealanders with 29km of tramping track and huts in the national walkway the length of New Zealand Te Araroa (The Long Pathway).

In March, Twain was joined at the opening of the trail by Prime Minister Helen Clark.

"I'm very proud," Twain told reporters. "It's lovely. I'm enjoying myself. I'm having a great time."

Clark said at the time the singer and her husband had "set a whole new benchmark for what can be achieved with a change of ownership".

Twain walked over a short section of the track with Miss Clark and Conservation Minister Steve Chadwick.

The marriage between Twain and Lange, a secretive Svengali famed for his work with such metal acts as AC/DC and Def Leppard, was an unlikely - but highly lucrative - partnership.

Lange produced Twain's three blockbuster albums, which have each sold more than 10 million copies in the United States. The glossy efforts, complemented by steamy video clips, crushed the barrier separating country and pop.

Like many men, Lange was entranced by one of Twain's videos, the first of many in which she showed off her famed belly button.

He called her persistently, and they agreed to collaborate professionally. Six months after they eventually met, they married in December 1993.

Unlike many superstar producers, Lange has not given an interview in decades and is rarely photographed. He did not even appear in the official wedding photo Twain distributed to the media.

But his fingerprints were all over Twain's huge trilogy of albums, 1995's The Woman in Me, 1997's Come on Over, and 2002's Up!

More arena rock than traditional country, the albums were packed with catchy hooks and lyrics celebrating female empowerment.

-With NZPA and Reuters