You'll probably know Celine Dion from the song she sang for the Titanic film, 'My Heart Will
Go On.' If you think Rose and Jack had a love story like no other, you obviously don't know
about the heart-touching love story between Celine Dion and her beloved late husband, Rene Angelil.
From facing her mother's disapproval of the man she had chosen to love,
to her struggle of conceiving their own child, and so many other personal battles. How did the
singer of some of the world's most favorite love songs manage to endure so much pain in her life?
Despite the fame and fortune that she's amounted to after decades in the music industry,
Celine did not have an easy start to her life. She was the youngest of 14 children. When the
singer speaks of her childhood, she explains that there were sometimes three or four of
her siblings sharing one bed and that she did not even have the comfort of having her own bedroom.
However, even though the family struggled to make ends meet, Dion insists that her family wasn't
poor where it really mattered. "We were given love and affection and support. What else did we need?"
Celine's passion for singing was unquestionable, and her talent was of course undeniable.
Her parents knew that young Celine was special and meant for greater things,
so they took a recording of her singing and sent it to manager and producer, Rene Angelil. Rene was
so impressed when he heard Dion's voice that he asked for her to come and sing for him in person.
She was just twelve years old when she met her new manager, Rene, and he had so much faith in
her talent as a singer that he mortgaged his own house to help launch her career.
Little did she know, that in the future, Rene would be so much more to her than
just her manager. It seems like Rene's sacrifice for the young singer paid off,
and very soon she was known worldwide and making hit after hit.
But it wasn't just a successful business relationship that was blooming between
Rene and Celine. As the singer grew older she started to see him more than just her manager.
"At 17, 18 years old, my feelings started to change for him. I kind of saw him differently,"
When she was 19 years old, she realized she was in love with Rene who was 45, and that
she wanted him to be more than her business partner, she wanted him to be her life partner.
Rene had also grown feelings for Celine and knew that they shared a powerful romantic connection.
So the pair took their relationship to the next level and started dating.
Unfortunately, they weren't ready to go public with their relationship because
they knew their love was going to be met with mountains of judgment from the outside world.
What they did not expect, was for their friends and family to disapprove of the
love they had for each other, but sadly their relationship was not welcomed with praise.
Celine's mother was not happy with such development, and she did everything in her
power to make sure that Celine and Rene would not stay together. Her mom would say how unreliable
Rene was, that he wasn't to be trusted and he had no good intentions with the singer.
"When I told her I had some really strong feelings for René, she tried
everything to kill him and make me snap out of it."
Her mother's words had no effect on the couple,
but they continued to keep their relationship a secret from the public
until five years later in the liner notes of her album, The Color of My Love,
she finally opened up about her romance with Rene. "I was afraid of what people would think;
when you're in love, you want to scream it to the world."
The couple went on to get engaged,
but Celine's mother was still struggling with her daughter's relationship with Rene.
Perhaps her mother was concerned about the 26 year age difference or the fact that Rene had
been married twice before and had children of his own from his previous marriages. But Celine was
not phased by any of these things, she loved him for who he was and accepted everything about him.
"She had no choice. Love won." Celine said, about her mother's disapproval of Rene.
The pair were married in 1994, in a lavish ceremony that was broadcast live
on Canadian Television. The newly married couple were besotted with one another,
and Celine's career was soaring with awards falling at her feet.
It seems like nothing could go wrong for the lovebirds and they could never be happier.
Celine knew she wanted to have a big family, and she wanted to have her own family with Angélil.
So the couple started to try for children, but sadly with no prevail.
Suddenly, the two had to put their attempts of having a child on hold
when they were faced with a diagnosis that shook their relationship to its core.
In 1998, the young family was left distraught when Angélil was diagnosed with throat cancer.
Despite her demanding career, Dion chose to step
back and take a hiatus to focus on her personal life and care for her husband.
"We had tension between us. It's never easy being husband and wife
but add to that we are in business together, dealing with all the added pressures of shows,
concerts, tours, traveling. It was hard – a lot of hard work."
After battling the deadly disease for almost two years, Rene was finally in remission,
and the couple decided to resume their efforts in expanding their family. Celine then had to face
her own battle with infertility and decided to go for IVF treatment to help her get pregnant.
Years of efforts finally paid off, and Dion gave birth to son René Charles,
the couple's first child. The couple baptized the baby that
July at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal — the same place where they married years earlier!
Determined to have more children, Celine even put her career at risk in order to
grow her family a little more. She had signed a contract with Caesars Palace
but postponed her shows in order to undergo more fertility treatments.
"I was not going to stop just because I had a contract for singing … so I
said try to postpone the Caesars Palace shows because it wasn't a good enough reason for me
not to try for a baby. A life or a contract? I couldn't live with that."
After multiple rounds of IVF, and having to suffer the loss of a miscarriage,
Dion and Angelil happily welcomed twin boys: Nelson, and Eddy.
"My greatest reward is my children. It gives you
true meaning to your life and it's the most important job."
Finally, it seemed that the couple had everything that they wanted,
three beautiful kids and successful careers, but it all began to crumble
once again when Rene's cancer returned and this time it was with a vengeance.
Dion returned to performing in Las Vegas, while Angelil battled cancer at their nearby home.
Even though she wasn't interested in performing at the time, she did it because he loved
seeing her perform. He loved her voice, and knowing she was out there doing something that
she was so gifted at. He would always call her before she would go on stage,
wish her good luck for her show and tell her how much he loves her.
Angelil, who was 73 at the time, was on a feeding tube for two years,
and Dion tried to be strong during his lengthy illness. She was the one to help feed him and
care for him when she was at home. She wanted to be the one there for him throughout this battle.
"I'll say, 'You're scared? I understand. Talk to me about it. And René says to me,
'I want to die in your arms.' OK, fine, I'll be there, you'll die in my arms."
In 2014, after one of her shows, Celine came home and instead of going in to say
goodnight to her husband because she didn't want to disturb him while he was sleeping,
she went to bed instead. The next morning, Rene's nurse told Celine
that her beloved husband had passed away during the night, just two days before his birthday.
The singer was heartbroken, regretting that she hadn't said goodnight to the love of her life the
night before, when she had the chance. So she went into the room and sat with Rene's lifeless body,
and told him that she and their kids would be OK and he could rest peacefully.
"I will probably grieve for the rest of my life. I'm still in love with him,"
There was nothing that could compare to the loss of the most important person in her life,
and even years later, Celine admits that she still feels as though she is married to Rene.
"But there's a song from Sia, 'I go to sleep and imagine that you're there with me.'
And I go to bed with him. And I come on stage with him. And so I'm still married to him."
In a devastating twist of events, as if the singer hadn’t already been through enough, Celine Dion's
brother, Daniel Dion, died of complications of cancer just two days after Rene's death.
Celine was surrounded by grief and loss,
and it seemed as though there was no way to go back to a normal life
after so much pain and suffering. How would she go on without her dearest Rene by her side?
The singer chose to lean into her music to help her heal from the loss of her soulmate
because she knew how much he loved to see her perform and do what she did best.
In fact, her album Courage helped Dion do just that. She poured herself not just
into the production of the album but also into planning the tour that accompanied it.
As the years passed, it seemed that the wound that Rene's loss had left behind
was finally starting to heal. Celine said that
she would be willing to open her heart to the possibility of falling in love again.
Dion made it clear that she wasn't exactly ready to jump into the dating pool,
but was open to the possibility of finding someone new in the future.
"Say yes for love maybe one day, I don't know,"
For now, though, the singer is just going with the flow and seeing what happens in the future.
"I'm not stressed at all. I feel like I can do anything I want."