Life on tour looks wildly different for LeAnn Rimes than it did only a few years ago.It used to be that she’d take “a little sip of tequila” before heading out onstage—but “I’ve traded that for Mylanta!,” she says, bursting out laughing. “I have acid reflux, and it’s been burning my vocal chords.” That’s hardly the only new item she’s packing in her luggage; now that she’s 42, Rimes has “a whole suitcase of all my supplements and collagen and creatine and protein and a blender. And I’m really into peptides, so I have all my shots packed on ice,” she reveals. “There is so much prep that goes into keeping healthy on the road!”

Even Rimes’ definition of “the road” has changed. “I can’t do the bus anymore,” she confesses, remembering how she used to spend weeks at a time roadtripping from one concert to the next. “We try to stay off it as much as possible because I can’t sleep on it. I used to be able to, like, sleep on that thing for days. But yeah—things have changed!”

For those of us who remember when Rimes burst onto the music scene as a precocious teenager, winning the Best New Artist Grammy in 1997 at only 14, then scoring a series of hits (including “How Do I Live” and “Can’t Fight the Moonlight”) before she was old enough to legally drink, it feels slightly surreal to hear her talking like the perimenopausal woman she now is. Just ask the crew members on the set of her new show, 911: Nashville, which premieres this Fall and features Rimes in her first regular TV role. “They were like, ‘Oh, wow—we heard you’re going to be playing a mom—what? There’s no way you’re old enough to play a mom!'” she shares.

But while her entry into midlife may be jarring to some, Rimes says she loves being older. “You cannot pay me to go back to my 20s—just, no thank you. I’ll take the wrinkles!” All kidding aside, Rimes adds, “I felt very alone in this world for a long time. I don’t necessarily feel that way anymore… I don’t feel like I’m ever in hiding.

“This shift is recent, and happened slowly. The 2020 photo shoot she did with Glamour—in which she posed nearly nude to show her psoriasis—was a turning point. So, too, was deciding she wouldn’t “sell her soul” to abide by the music industry’s expectations of her, choosing, for example, to release a 2020 album of chants and mantras that came out of her meditation practice instead of, say, another country album. “I think it comes with just getting older and knowing what you want,” she says. “Who you are and what you’re not willing to compromise on.”

Then, there was all the work she did to come to terms with the brutal public backlash she and her husband, actor Eddie Cibrian, received after their relationship began with an affair while they were both married to other people. “Starting as a child star [I had] all this protection,” Rimes points out. “But it was like, if I want to live a fulfilling life, I’ve got to learn how to let that guard down. To me, it was either I was going to die, or I had to confront it. It was complete survival.”

Hurt and Healing

For most of her career, Rimes thrived by maintaining a carefully-curated image as “kind of America’s sweetheart,” she says. “You learn what’s needed of you, and you’re able to deliver.” That often meant being “walled up” about anything that didn’t fit the narrative, she says—like her struggle with psoriasis, a chronic autoimmune condition that, among other symptoms, can cause red, scaly rashes to flare up on the skin.

Diagnosed at the age of two, Rimes underwent painful treatments for years, including repeated attempts at Goeckerman Therapy, which typically takes place in a hospital and involves applying a substance called cold tar (a kind of thick petroleum ointment) to the body and then covering the skin in plastic wrap. She still visibly shudders when talking about what she endured. “I don’t think I realized the emotional toll [of psoriasis] until I was about, probably, 11,” Rimes says. “I was in the emergency room, like, every day, because I had started to have panic attacks.”

Being in the public eye only exacerbated her anxiety. “I’d try to cover all [of the rash],” she recalls. “And it’s emotionally exhausting. It’s so draining because it’s something that you have to think about that most people don’t. So I was just very uncomfortable in my body for a long time.”

Today, Rimes says her skin “has been pretty clear for years now,” both because she has a good handle on what triggers a flare-up (being “super stressed and tired”) and has finally found a good medication regime. “Thank god we’ve come so far with treatments,” she says. “Because before that, everything I tried would work for, like, six months and then stop.” (For more on how Rimes manages her condition, including the products that work on her skin, watch the video here.)

Rimes has faced other health crises as well. After getting dental veneers around the age of 16, she later had them redone by a dentist who didn’t bond them correctly; to address the problem, Rimes spent a decade undergoing multiple root canals and oral surgeries. “I look at my pictures from that time, and my face was so different—it was just so swollen,” she shares. “Oh, it was awful. I was in chronic pain for, like, two-and-a-half years.” (She continues to have dental issues: In June, while on tour, the bridge in her mouth fell out mid-song.)

Then last year, Rimes was diagnosed with high-grade dysplasia, after a routine Pap smear found pre-cancerous cells in her cervix, news she shared with her fans on Instagram because, “I just feel like it’s not something we talk about, and something so many women feel so much shame around,” she explains.

She also wants to be part of the effort to remove any stigma around perimenopause, the symptoms of which she first started experiencing in her late 30s and now takes hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to manage.

“I thought I was crazy for about two years,” she reveals. “I was waking up at 3 a.m. all the time, and having really, really heavy anxiety.” She sought help from Mindy Pelz, a doctor of chiropractic medicine and author of The Menopause Reset, who strongly encouraged her to open up to Cibrian about what she was going through. “She was like, ‘Look, I’ve seen marriages literally implode over this… because no one really explains it to [men],'” Rimes recalls. “She was always telling me, ‘If you’re feeling something, express it to him.’ And I do; I’m really vocal about it.”

For his part, Cibrian, 52, says he feels like, “one of the lucky ones,” because Rimes is so open with him. “She really committed to learning and seeking out help early on,” he shared in an email. “We were never in a position wondering why these things were happening. We knew the why, which is a huge step for most couples.”

‘Truly Living’

Perimenopause was hardly the biggest challenge she and Cibrian have faced. After meeting in 2008 while filming a television movie together, they fell in love, despite being married to other people. Unkind tabloid headlines followed the two of them for years—which were nothing compared to the onslaught of hate the internet unleashed.

Reflecting on “all of the craziness we went through,” Rimes says she understands why people had such strong reactions to the couple’s affair. “I realized very quickly that there are a lot of women who’ve been hurt. Like, I’ve been on both sides of that coin—I’ve been cheated on, too, so I know that feeling,” she says. “But so many women don’t know what to do with that anger… I was a target that was just easily projected upon. And once I realized that, things got a lot easier. Instead of taking it so personally, it’s like, look: 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.”

In April, Rimes and Cibrian celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary. When asked the secret to their long-lasting relationship, Cibrian jokes, “Because we are in bed by 7:30!” But he admits that when it comes to the couple’s lifestyle, he willingly takes the lead from his wife, who loves to scour Pinterest for recipe inspiration, leaning toward entrees like turkey burgers, veggie stir fries and steak kebobs. “She is so proactive in her health journey—emotionally, physically, spiritually—that it’s truly inspiring,” he says.

Rimes prides herself on being an early adopter of longevity treatments, declaring, “I’m one of those people who will try anything once.” She and Cibrian start their day by injecting themselves with peptide shots, a therapy that early clinical studies indicate could improve, among other things, skin and hair quality. She then spends about 90 minutes in her at-home hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which can help strengthen the body’s immune system, passing the time by binge-watching shows (her current fave: The Good Doctor) and doing word games.

For exercise, she and Cibrian like to lift weights and play tennis together; lately, they’ve also been bonding over acting, running lines together as Rimes shoots 911: Nashville. “I get really nervous doing that in front of him,” she admits. “But he’s been super helpful.”She prepared for her new TV role in another, less conventional way as well: by making her first perfume—a blend of rosewood, tobacco, leather, black pepper and the wood scent oud—in honor of her character. “Fragrance is super-emotional for me,” says Rimes, who also creates candles infused with fragrance that she sells as limited-edition releases. “It’s like music.”

And despite all the dramatic ups and downs Rimes has experienced throughout her life, music has remained the one constant. She has tour dates booked into next year, is putting the finishing touches on her second album of musical chants, and wants to follow in the footsteps of some of her musical heroes by performing for as long as possible. “Someone like Dolly [Parton], I’m amazed, and you know, Stevie Nicks—like to see her walk out in those massive heels every night,” Rimes marvels. “Just anybody at that age being able to walk out and entertain and, like, fully be present in that, it’s just amazing. I mean, I’m sure I will [too].”

She’s equally sure that she’ll continue on her evolving wellness journey, given how far she’s already seen herself come. As she moves through her 40s, “I feel like I just want to be even more grounded into myself,” she says. “I think I’ve gone from survival to thriving to—if there is a level up from thriving—to truly living. I think that’s where I’m headed.”