LeAnn Rimes talks Eddie Cibrian affair: 'I didn't do it the right way'

LeAnn Rimes made a mistake, and she'll be the first to admit it.


The country star is now engaged to be married to Eddie Cibrian, with whom she partook in a very public extramarital affair back in 2009. Her story seems to be ending happily but if she had it to do over, things may have gone differently.

"I know I didn't do it the right way," Rimes says of having an affair while she was married to Dean Sheremet and Cibrian to Brandi Glanville. "I didn't have the tools to know how to do it the right way, how to let go the right way. I'd never been taught that."

Rimes appears in a special for the Great American Country channel called "Backstory: LeAnn Rimes." In the 90-minute feature, the Grammy Award winner spills on the intimate details of growing up in the spotlight and going through the struggles of her divorce.

"I think I felt abandoned -- I think abandoned is a really good word -- because of our divorce," she explains. "Not only that, our divorce became so much bigger because it was publicized."

Now, life has taken a turn for the better. Admitting to her new found "strength," Rimes claims to have "learned a lot" from the entire experience. "I'm not glad it happened, but I know why it did," she says. A tongue-in-cheek "all's well that ends well" reference, perhaps?

Rimes divorce was finalized in June of 2010. By December, she had a brand new rock on her left hand from her 37-year-old beau. Reportedly, the two may wed this weekend.

E! has a sneak peek of "Backstory" before it airs on Sunday (Apr. 24) at 8 PM. Are you interested in hearing more of Rimes' side of the story?