LeAnn Rimes Opens Up About Rehab: No One Understood My Pain

Us Weekly

LeAnn Rimes is ready for a fresh start.

The country music star voluntarily checked into rehab for anxiety and stress just one day after her 30th birthday in August. In her first TV interview since treatment, Rimes opens up to Katie Couric on the Oct. 25 episode of "Katie" and the Oct. 26 episode of "All Access Nashville," a special edition of "20/20."

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"I feel like I am starting over even though I've had all these years behind me," Rimes tells Couric. "How many people get to [start] over again in this day and age?"

Adds Rimes, "People look at you and go, 'Why are you struggling?' No one can quite understand why you hurt so badly."

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The singer first talked about her 30-day stint in rehab in an interview with the Boston Herald in early October. "I've been in therapy my whole life," she said. "I like going. I like being able to have that third-party input and someone to listen that has nothing to do with your life. Everyone has an opinion of how I am and how I should be, and now I'm focusing on how I want to be."

Insiders previously told Us Weekly that Rimes sought help to cope with fears that Eddie Cibrian would cheat on her, as he did with his first wife, Brandi Glanville. "LeAnn has had major insecurity issues since she first got together with Eddie," a source said.

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Since Us exposed their extramarital affair in 2009, Rimes has endured relentless bullying via social media. "I think it's really hard to deal with Twitter and Facebook," Rimes told the Boston Herald. "And it's hard to take it day after day of reading and seeing things that someone you don't even know says about you. As much as you said you don't want it to penetrate, it does, because you're human."

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"All Access Nashville" airs on Oct. 26 at 9 p.m. EST.

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