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Since cheating on her husband with then-married Eddie Cibrian, singer LeAnn Rimes has become something of a tabloid fixture.
Now, Rimes, 28, is opening up about how she feels about being in the headlines and why she no longer has any regrets about how her relationship with Cibrian, 37, started.
During an interview with Robin Roberts for a special called In the Spotlight with Robin Roberts: All Access Nashville (airing Nov. 3 on ABC at 10 p.m.), Rimes dished about her affair -- which started when she and Cibrian were filming a TV movie called Northern Lights. "What happened is not who I am, period," she says. "But I do know how much I love him. So I've always said I don't live my life with regret. I can't." (Watch a clip below!)
"It happens every day to so many people," Rimes says of the affair. "And if I take away my album sales, my words... you have just another couple."
At the time of their affair, Rimes was married to Dean Sheremet and Cibrian was married, with children, to Brandi Glanville. "You had two couples whose marriages didn't work who really stumbled upon each other and fell in love," Rimes explains. "I can't change (critics') minds. Nothing I'm going to say is going to change it. I do know that and I have accepted that."
"We're really happy in what we feel privately," she adds. "We hope (that) one day, I think people will feel publicly." Still, it seems not everyone is ready to accept their relationship.
Recently, Valerie Latona, the editor of Shape magazine, apologized to outraged readers for putting Rimes on the cover. "Please know that our putting her on the cover was not meant to put a husband-stealer on a pedestal," she wrote in an email. "It did not come across that way. And for that I'm terribly sorry."
Rimes quickly took to her Twitter to talk to her fans about the Latona email. The Grammy winner twittered that she felt bullied on what she called a "drama-filled day." "It's a sticky situation I've been put in and I'm disappointed," she said.
But that wasn't the only time she had to log into her Twitter page to clear some things up. When ads for the Roberts special hit television, there was speculation that a clip in which Rimes is seen crying and saying "That was my life!" was about the affair. But, Rimes says that wasn't the case.
"To all my fans, I don't know how the Robin Roberts interview was edited, but my tears came when discussing my childhood, nothing else," Rimes twittered about the rumors. "Now, it could be edited to look differently, but that's not what happened in my house during the interview. I got emotional when something was read to me that I had written in my What I Cannot Change book. Hopefully, it's edited the way it actually happened. Xox."
But, Rimes isn't the only one speaking up. Cibrian also talked to Roberts during the special about their controversial courtship. "The truth is that we're human beings," the actor says. "We make mistakes and we learn from them, but we're human. We fell in love."
"We're talking about something that's over a year, year-and-a-half old, really, and we're still together, and we're madly in love," he continues. "And I think people are finally seeing that, but it doesn't mean that people will accept it or the tabloids will stop trying to print lies and try to tear us apart or tear us down."
Do you think the public will ever completely accept LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian as a couple? Chime in below!
Like This? Read These:
- PHOTO: Eddie Cibrian "Proposes" to LeAnn Rimes
- LeAnn Rimes Calls Shape Cover Controversy "A Sticky Situation"
- Shape Editor "Sorry" for Putting LeAnn Rimes on Cover
