Jerry Twain: What Happened To Shania Twain’s Stepfather?

Jerry Twain is the stepfather of Canadian singer and songwriter Eilleen Regina Edwards, also known as Shania Twain or Queen of Country Pop. Jerry’s daughter Shania rose to fame with her second studio album, The Woman in Me (1995), which earned her a Grammy Award. Billboard named her as the leader of the ’90s country-pop crossover stars.

Jerry Twain: Bio Summary

Who Is Jerry Twain?

Jerry Twain is the adoptive father of Shania Twain and her siblings. Jerry was born in the year 1947, in Timmins, Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada. His parents are Gerald Twain and Selina Luke Twain. There is no information available regarding Jerry’s childhood life, family background, and education.

Jerry Twain was an Ojibwa from the nearby Mattagami First Nation. He is a full-blooded Ojibwe. He met Sharon (née Morrison) when she was a divorcee and a mother of three children. Sharon was married to Clarence Edwards and they had three girls, Shania Twain, Carrie Ann Edwards, and Jill Edwards.

Sharon Morrison and Clarence Edwards decided to dissolve their marriage. Sharon moved with the three girls to Timmins, Ontario. She then met Jerry Twain. Jerry and Sharon got married in a beautiful wedding ceremony. The couple welcomed a son and named him Mark Twain.

Jerry Twain took Sharon’s three girls as his own children. He adopted them and legally changed their surname to his, Twain. He and his wife Sharon adopted his baby nephew Darryl Twain, who was orphaned when his mother died. Jerry’s adopted daughter Shania Twain has acknowledged Jerry as her father.

Also Read: Carrie Ann Edwards: Who Is Shania Twain’s Sister?

Shania Twain chose not to publicly acknowledge her biological father as her father for several years. She made it known that:

My father (Jerry) went out of his way to raise three daughters that weren’t even his. For me to acknowledge another man as my father, a man who was never there for me as a father, who wasn’t the one who struggled every day to put food on our table, would have hurt him terribly. We were a family. Step-father, step-brothers, we never used that vocabulary in our home. To have referred to him as my stepfather would have been the worst slap across the face to him.

However, Jerry Twain and Sharon Morrison’s union wasn’t a fairytale. The couple had difficulties providing for the family. Sharon reportedly suffered abuse at the hands of Jerry as Jerry was violent at times. Their daughter Shania recalled in her 2001 memoir, From This Moment On an incident between her parents.

Shania remembered a time when Jerry had beaten Sharon unconscious and continued to repeatedly plunge her head into the toilet. She revealed: “I ran up behind my dad with a chair in both hands and smashed it across his back. Before I could get away, he punched me in the jaw. Adrenaline pumping, I punched him back!”

Shania Twain has revealed that she suffered sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather Jerry. ‘It’s really about saying I was abused as a kid. My stepfather would fondle me up on the top and make me go without a shirt and I was already maturing. This cringy horrible wanting to escape being in my own skin.’

‘It’s time to start loving myself in my own skin and really embracing that and not being embarrassed of it or shy of it. This is who I am, Shania added.

Shania Twain once said that she tried to change her appearance to avoid any abuse from her stepdad: “I hid myself and I would flatten my boobs. I would wear bras that were too small for me, and I’d wear two, play it down until there was nothing girl about me”. “Make it easier to go unnoticed. Because, oh my gosh, it was terrible — you didn’t want to be a girl in my house.”

Also Read: Tiffany Reed: Facts About Ving Rhames’ Step-daughter

What Happened To Shania Twain’s Stepfather?

Jerry Twain is no longer alive. He died on November 1, 1987, in a car accident alongside his wife Sharon Morrison. He died in Wawa, Ontario. He is buried at Timmins Memorial Cemetery, in Timmins, Cochrane District, Ontario, Canada.