LeAnn Rimes reveals her affair with now-husband Eddie Cibrian gave her panic attacks

LeAnn Rimes has said ‘public shaming’ following her affair with now-husband Eddie Cibrian gave her panic attacks.

Opening up about her mental health, the singer said she found reading the constant criticism hard to cope with. 

‘Obviously there are mistakes that I take great responsibility for,’ she told People magazine. But my whole life I had cared what everyone thought of me. So the public shaming was a deep thing that I took on.’

When LeAnn and Cibrian started their fling, she was married Dean Sheremet and he to Brandi Glanville, with whom he shares two sons Mason, 16, and Jake, 13. The couple, who married in April 2011, got together in 2009 on the set of the Lifetime TV movie Northern Lights.  

LeAnn says the often ‘fabricated’ headlines were hard for her to live with.

‘I had so much underlying grief,’ she reflected, saying this affected her sleep and gave her panic attacks. ‘Everything accumulated, and I had to give in.’ 

LeAnn sought treatment at a mental health facility the day after her 30th birthday for a month in 2012. 

‘It was the first night I was ever alone, ever,’ she said. ‘There was a lot of co-dependency. And a lot of healing that needed to be done.’ 

Eight years on, the two-time Grammy winner said she had ‘found peace’.

‘At first I didn’t want to face my pain, because I thought I would get lost in it,’ Rimes, 37, said. ‘But I didn’t. People are so ashamed to talk about it and ask for help. But taking away the shame is so important.’

‘There was so much emptiness and sadness amidst joy,’ the Life Goes On hitmaker revealed. ‘And I had to be LeAnn Rimes, the entity, not LeAnn Rimes, the person. I was very fragmented.’ 

Today, she uses time alone, medication and yoga to maintain a healthy state.

‘I know who I am now,’ Rimes concluded.