LeAnn Rimes on her affair: 'I know I didn't do it the right way'

Rick Diamond/Getty Images for Nashville Rising

LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian began an affair while working on the 2009 movie 'Northern Lights.'

LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian left their spouses for each other nearly two years ago, but it's still a sore subject for the country singer.

In "Backstory: LeAnn Rimes," which will air on the Great American Country channel Sunday, the 28-year-old simultaneously defended herself and took responsibility for the actions that led to the demise of two marriages ? and a new engagement.

"I know I didn't do it the right way," Rimes said of having an affair with Cibrian, 37, while she was still wed to Dean Sheremet and he was to Brandi Glanville.

"I didn't have the tools to know how to do it the right way, how to let go the right way," she explained. "I'd never been taught that."

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Rimes cited her difficult and sometimes distant relationship with her parents, due to her rise to superstardom at such a young age, as reasons why she didn't have a healthy way to deal with falling out of love with one man and falling in love with another at the same time.

Sheremet and Rimes wed in 2002 and separated in 2009. (Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

"I think I felt really abandoned ? I think 'abandoned' is a really good word ? because of a divorce," Rimes said of her parent's split in 1997.

"Not only that," she added, "the divorce became so much bigger because it was publicized."

The onslaught of media attention, over both her affair and subsequent separation from Sheremet, only amplified Rimes' struggles.

Rimes and Cibrian became engaged in December, with the singer feeling much better about her ability to cope with life changes.

"I have ? strength," she said. "I didn't have it at the time. So, it got really messy. I have learned a lot from that."

"I'm not glad it happened, but I know why it did," she said.

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