LeAnn Rimes opened up about her role as stepmom to Eddie Cibrian’s sons and feeling complete without welcoming children of her own.
“I have two stepsons that are now 22 and 18,” she said during a segment that aired on the Friday, May 1, episode of the Today show celebrating women in their 40s. “I’m kind of satisfied with what we have going on.”
Cibrian, 52, shares sons Mason and Jake with ex-wife Brandi Glanville. When Rimes, 43, tied the knot with Cibran in 2011, Mason was 8 and Jake was 4.
“People always assumed, ‘She must not be able to have kids because she’s not having kids,’” the singer continued. “I’m like, ‘That has nothing to do with that.’”
“I just felt so strange that there had to be a reason other than I don’t want kids,” Rimes explained. “That should be reason enough. I didn’t need anything to satisfy my own ego of ‘This is my kid that I birthed or came from me.’ It just didn’t cross my mind. I was really happy raising his children and they’re such great kids.”
Elsewhere in the clip, Rimes opened up about what’s changed the most since she entered a new decade. “If I’m having a bad day, I’m gonna tell people I’m having a bad day,” she said. “I feel like sometimes I have two speeds: one is grief and the other one’s rage.”
Rimes also got candid about the stress “all these changes” women go through as they age can put on a marriage.
“Men really kind of have to go on the journey with us. I’ve had to learn how to communicate with my husband [on] what’s going on,” Rimes added, noting that she often reminds Cibrian that her “anger” is not directed at him. “If I snap, just know I’m having a moment.”
Rimes and Cibrian recently celebrated 15 years of marriage, with the musician promising in a sweet Instagram post that the milestone was “just the beginning.”
Days before her appearance on Today, Rimes canceled a handful of upcoming performances due to “severe illness.”
