Eddie Cibrian on LeAnn Rimes: 'We're madly in love. And I think people are finally seeing that.'

Image Credit: Rick Rowell/ABCAt what point does an affair stop becoming tabloid fodder and start becoming a love story? Is it after a year and a half? That’s what LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian are hoping. The couple sat down for their first joint interview with ABC’s Robin Roberts for Wednesday’s In the Spotlight Nashville special. Rimes started off the conversation solo, and those tears we saw in the promo came when Roberts read back to her a passage from Rimes’ memoir in which she describes being a teen star who’d wake up not wanting to perform for anybody, just wanting “to be,” and was forced to do two shows a day. When she wasn’t onstage though, she had no idea what to do with herself or who she was without it. “That’s been my life,” Rimes said, trying to hold back tears and admitting she was extra emotional because she hadn’t been able to sleep the night before the interview. “I’m learning who I am without it.”

Who that is, is someone who has made up with the father she once sued for allegedly misappropriating her earnings, and who saw acting as another form of expression — not a way to end two marriages. She said she turned down the role in the Lifetime TV movie Nora Roberts’ Northern Lights three times because she was terrified to do it. Then, of course, ABC showed the scene in which her character asks Cibrian’s “Do you want to have sex?” Classy! Rimes said the tabloid story that hurt her the most was the one in which Cibrian’s wife at the time referred to her as a “stalker.” Roberts didn’t ask Rimes (or Cibrian) if there was a time when they tried to break off their affair. Instead, she asked Rimes how she would respond to people who considered her a homewrecker who didn’t think about those she would be hurting (her husband, and Cibrian’s wife and two children). “Well, I can’t change their minds. Nothing I’m going to say is gonna change it. I do know that, and I have accepted that,” she said. “It happens every day to so many people. And if I take away my album sales, my awards, and you have just another couple — you have two couples whose marriages didn’t work, who really stumbled upon each other and fell in love. And never ever was I thinking of hurting someone.” 

After announcing that both their divorces are now final and Cibrian moved into Rimes’ home over the summer, it was time to bring in Cibrian for a chat in front of the fireplace. He was asked what first drew him to Rimes, and he said it was her passion for life, music, and art, her kind heart, and the fact that even with all of her success, she was still a normal, down-to-earth woman. What does he want people to know about the relationship? “The truth is, we’re human beings. We make mistakes. And we learn from them. But we’re human. We fell in love,” he said. “We’re talking about something that’s over a year, a year and a half old, really. And we’re still together, and we’re madly in love. And I think people are finally seeing that. But it doesn’t mean that people will accept it or the tabloids will stop trying to print lies and try to tear us apart or tear us down.” Added Rimes, “We’re really happy. And what we feel privately, we hope one day people will feel publicly.”

The segment ended with Rimes solo again, a clip of her latest video, and her wiping away tears as she thought about her career. “Yeah, there’s been a lot thrust on my shoulders at a very young age,” she said. [Cut to shots of her saying hello to her dogs outside, perhaps symbolizing the sort of playfulness she missed out on during her childhood?] ” Thank god, I don’t know how I’ve handled it. But I have.” [Cut to shot of Cibrian kissing her on the forehead during their interview. He's her rock?] “I’m still here, and that’s saying a lot.”

Did the interview change how you look at Rimes and Cibrian’s relationship? Are you ready to wish them both happiness and success? What else did you learn during the special? Me: Brad Paisley is as big a sweetheart as I’ve always assumed he is. Carrie Underwood’s nickname for her husband is ”Cowboy,” because he used to phone her back four hours after she left a message and say he’d been out chopping wood. There is nothing sweeter than a dad tearing up talking about the woman his little girl has become (Miranda Lambert’s father recalled how the hard times — they were homeless, then they got a house and started gardening and raising animals when they had no food in it — shaped her). And, I do actually like Kellie Pickler. I like that she has two rocking chairs from Cracker Barrel sitting next to a rocking chair that was a gift from Dolly Parton (Pickler’s fiancé got the pair for her because that’s where their first date was — at a Cracker Barrel). And I like that she just asked her grandfather to move in upstairs in her new home.