Shania Twain became ‘mother figure’ for siblings after parents’ death in 1987

Shania Twain became ‘the head of the house’.

The country music diva opened up to the Today presenter in a new interview for the podcast Making Space with Hoda Kotb about the loss of her mother, Sharon Twain, and stepfather, Jerry Twain, and how she was left to care for her siblings following their passing.

Twain took up the responsibility of parenting her three younger siblings after the catastrophe.

"My kids — I call them that often. I know they're not mine, but I say that," she said, revealing that her eldest sister was "very, very busy" with her own marriage and two kids.

"My younger sister was still living at home, and my two younger brothers were still, you know, 13 and 14 years old," added Twain.

"We all agreed that they shouldn't be separated. But no relatives were able to take both of them in. So, the only way to keep them together was for us to stay together."

However, Twain was not unfamiliar with the duties of a caretaker.

"I was already very much a mother figure in our house. My mother was depressed a lot of our lives, didn't get out of bed for days many times," she recalled.

"That's why I was up, ironing my dad's shirt and his pants, getting everybody ready for school in the mornings, and getting home from school after the whole mess of the morning," continued the singer-songwriter.

"I had to hurry up and rush around and clean it all up before he got home, so he didn't drag her out of bed by her hair. I mean, this was the cycle."