'I Hate That People Got Hurt, but I Don't Regret the Outcome': LeAnn Rimes Opens Up on Controversial Romance

Country singer LeAnn Rimes has reflected on the backlash surrounding her relationship with Eddie Cibrian, saying she accepts responsibility for the hurt involved. Rimes discussed the controversy in comments to Flow Space, revisiting the relationship that later led to their 2011 marriage.

Rimes, 44, and Cibrian, 53, began an affair in 2009 after meeting on the Lifetime film Northern Lights. Rimes was married to Dean Sheremet at the time, while Cibrian was married to Brandi Glanville.

The relationship became a lasting source of public criticism for Rimes, who has repeatedly addressed her part in what happened. Her latest remarks focus less on defending the affair than on how she learned to live with the reaction.

LeAnn Rimes Reflects on the Backlash

Rimes told Flow Space that she quickly recognised why the situation resonated with women who had experienced infidelity. She said her own experience of being cheated on also helped her understand the anger directed towards her.

'I realized very quickly that there are a lot of women who've been hurt,' Rimes said. She added that she had been 'on both sides of that coin' and understood the feeling of betrayal.

Still, Rimes said she eventually stopped treating every hostile reaction as something she had to absorb personally. She described herself as an easy target for anger that, in some cases, reflected other people's experiences.

'But so many women don't know what to do with that anger...' she said. Rimes added, 'I was a target that was just easily projected upon.'

That distinction appears central to how Rimes now talks about the controversy. She accepts responsibility for her conduct, while rejecting the idea that she must carry every grievance attached to it.

'I know what I'm responsible for in that situation and making amends for that,' she said. Rimes added that 'the world's pain is not mine to carry.'

Her comments do not erase the history, and she does not claim they should. Instead, Rimes separates accountability for her choices from the wider public judgement that followed.

That is an uncomfortable distinction, but it is the one she is making. The backlash, by her account, became easier to process once she stopped viewing every criticism as uniquely hers.

LeAnn Rimes on Responsibility and Moving Forward

People reported that Rimes and Glanville have since made peace, suggesting at least part of the personal fallout has changed over time. People provided no further detail about when or how that reconciliation developed.

Rimes also described her own life as moving through different stages, from survival to something she now sees as more settled. She said she believed she was heading towards 'truly living.'

'I think I've gone from survival to thriving,' Rimes said. She then added that, if there is 'a level up from thriving,' she believes that is where she is headed.

Her present-day reflections echo an older statement in which she acknowledged the damage caused by the affair. People reported that in 2010 she called it 'one of the most selfish things that I could possibly do.'

The 2010 remark is important because it shows that Rimes has long separated remorse over the hurt from regret over the outcome. She did not deny responsibility for the consequences of the relationship.

Rimes and Cibrian married in 2011, three years after the affair began. The marriage is the outcome Rimes has said she does not regret, even while acknowledging how others were affected.

The tension between those two positions has remained part of the public discussion around the couple. Rimes' latest interview returns to that same divide without suggesting that the original hurt can simply be written away.

'I take responsibility for everything I've done,' she said in 2010. She also said she 'hated that people were hurt,' but 'did not regret the outcome.'