LeAnn Rimes felt like an easy target for "hurt" women when her affair with now-husband Eddie Cibrian became public knowledge.
The How Do I Live singer met the actor on the set of the 2009 TV film Northern Lights while she was married to dancer Dean Sheremet and he was wed to reality star Brandi Glanville.
Reflecting on "all of the craziness" she went through when the affair became public, Rimes told Flow Space that she became an easy target for women "who've been hurt" by cheating.
"I realised very quickly that there are a lot of women who've been hurt," she said. "Like, I've been on both sides of that coin - I've been cheated on, too, so I know that feeling. But so many women don't know what to do with that anger... I was a target that was just easily projected upon."
The Can't Fight the Moonlight singer explained that "things got a lot easier" and she stopped taking the backlash "personally" once she made that realisation.
"This is not all my pain to carry. I know what I'm responsible for in the situation and making amends for that. But you know, the world's pain is not mine to carry, and I think that really got thrown at me for a long time," she added.
Rimes and Cibrian divorced their respective partners in 2010 and tied the knot in 2011. The singer is the stepmother to Cibrian's sons Mason, 22, and Jake, 18.
Over the years, Rimes and Glanville have reached an understanding, with The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star saying in 2018, "We both love the kids, and Eddie's going to be in my life for the rest of my life... We're like sister wives. It's me and LeAnn and Eddie."
