Shania Twain's Free Spirit

Shania Twain is the first and only female artist to sell more than 11 million copies of consecutive albums.

Come on Over is the second highest selling album by a woman of all time. She talks about life in the spotlight with The Early Show's Mark McEwen.

"It's going to be the most free spirited thing I've done on television," she says.

In her "I Feel Like a Woman" video, Twain demonstrated that she has a very sexy stage presence.

"It's natural for all women to be sexy. It's a feminine thing. It's natural. All of us are sexy, and we all have our moments when we feel most comfortable being that way," Twain says.

And for her, music is the way she feels comfortable expressing her femininity; she says she is having fun with it.

Her biggest hit, "You're Still the One," is also the piece closest to her heart.

"It's personally the type of song thatÂ…I would write for myself. That I wouldn't care if it [were] ever commercialized or recorded," she notes.

More News

"You'd think [the tabloids] would get bored by now. I think that what they're hoping for is that that [at] some point we do divorce, and then they'll have been right," she notes.

So how has the couple managed to stay together?

"Our phone conversations are still very fresh," she explains. "Time doesn't mean anything, and you pick up where you left off. And it's that much more exciting. And we're always making plans...so that continues - which in a lot of people's relationship[s] ends after just the first year."

And a life in the spotlight comes not only with people digging around her private life but also with opportunities for critics to pick her apart in the newspapers, something that Twain thinks is fair.

"I think you must be prepared to take the good with the bad, and I think it's best just to stay [on an] even keel. Realize that your career is a separate entity from your personal life," she says.

Twain has a highly documented personal life, which includes growing up poor in Timmins, Ontario. Then there's the tragedy when he was just 21, of her parents dying in an auto accident, leaving her to raise her siblings alone.

"I'm always a little guarded and prepared for the worst. That is my tendency, and it comes from my childhood to be prepared for things to go wrong at any time. As wonderful as things are,Â…I play my own devil's advocate," she says.

When asked if she is happy, Twain says she has nothing to ask for in her life.

"There seem to be more highs, more lows. And so it's hard to get settled. But, of course, I have to slap myself and say, 'Wake up, because life is very good to you,'" she adds.

Click here for more on Thursday's CBS special starring Shania Twain.

©1999 CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved