Celine Dion has been entertaining audiences since she was 12 years old, but there's a
lot you probably don't know about the French-Canadian star.
Here's the truth about megastar Celine Dion.
The youngest of 14 children, Dion didn't always have an easy life when she was growing up.
With so many kids in the family, their house in Quebec was overcrowded.
She told CBS News,
"We were three, four in the same bed.
I did not have a bedroom.
Up the stairs, before going in the bedrooms, there was a little ramp.
And my bed was there.
So everybody went up, they saw me, and I could wave goodbye and goodnight."
Despite the lack of money, Dion insists that her family wasn't poor where it really mattered.
She told Vanity Fair,
"We were given love and affection and support.
What else did we need?"
Sounds like the superstar has her priorities straight.
Dion was just 12 years old when she met the love of her life, although she didn't know
it at the time.
It would take another five years for her to fall for her manager, Rene Angelil, in spite
of their 26-year age difference.
Dion's mother did not approve of the relationship at first, but she eventually came around.
Dion told Access Hollywood,
"She had no choice.
Love won."
Angélil passed away from cancer in 2016, and Dion is still grieving his death.
She told Digital Spy in 2017,
"I will probably grieve for the rest of my life."
The singer told CBS News that she doesn't see herself falling in love again, adding,
"I'm still in love with him.
And I have the love of my children.
I have the love of my fans.
I love the people that I work with.
So my life is not empty of love...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."
Dion struggled for years to have a child, according to the Daily Mail.
Her battle with infertility made having children difficult, but she finally had three children
who were all conceived through in vitro fertilization.
After giving birth to her first child, she went through another six rounds of IVF before
conceiving her twins, Nelson and Eddy.
"We tried four times to have a child.
We're still trying.
We're on the fifth try and I tell you, if five is my lucky number, this fifth try has
gotta come in!
Right?"
Dion was determined to have another child, even if it cost her the career she had worked
so hard for.
She had signed a contract with Caesars Palace but postponed her shows in order to undergo
treatments.
She told the Daily Mail,
"People stop because it's very expensive but I kept on going.
I was not going to stop just because I had a contract for singing.
I would have hated every song for the rest of my life, 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."
In spite of growing up famous, Dion didn't go through the rebellious phase that so many
child stars do.
Instead, she has always seemed quite focused and down to earth.
While she's a household name at this point of her career, she still doesn't care very
much for fame.
The singer prefers to focus on the important things in life, like her three kids, who she
told Magnifissance are what she is "most proud of" and are her "biggest success."
This, she said, is what defines her life, rather than her fame and her awards.
The fact that Dion has managed to stay grounded in spite of her estimated $800 million fortune
is impressive enough, but she also wants to help other women recognize their own worth
beyond financial and professional success.
As the global spokesperson for L'Oréal Paris, Dion told Elle that she connects with the
brand's "I'm Worth It" tagline.
She said,
"Telling other women that they, too, have self-worth, that they are strong, is obviously
really important."
Believe it or not, Dion doesn't watch reality singing competitions on television.
Without a doubt she would have been a hit on a show like American Idol, but it turns
out that TV shows aren't her style.
She told Woman's Weekly that she's happy that she was born before the heyday of reality
TV, saying,
"If I was starting my career now I doubt that I would have had any other option than to
enter one of those shows.
But I'm glad that I didn't start my career now.
I don't watch TV and so I can't say that I'm a fan to be honest."
Dion explained that these days, everything is about her kids, adding,
"I'm not part of the music industry and what's going on these days, I just perform and then
go back to my family."
Clearly family comes before work, and TV time.
Dion isn't your typical celebrity.
In spite of the glitz and glamour of her life, she would rather kick up her feet at home
than go out to nightclubs or walk red carpets.
And her rejection of the nightlife scene isn't because she's become tired of partying over
the years, either.
Dion has never considered herself to be "a party girl," as she told W magazine in 2007.
Even back then, she preferred staying at home to going out, saying that one of the perks
of having an older husband, who was 65 at the time, was that he didn't want to go out
multiple times a week.
Dion revealed that not only would she have disliked going out regularly, she insisted,
"I would go crazy."
In 2018, Dion told The Sun that, after the death of her husband, hanging out at home
consisted of a lot of family-bonding time with her kids, adding,
"I'm discovering Disney."
It should come as no surprise that Dion calls the shots.
After launching her handbag and accessory line and parting ways with her former manager,
she made it clear that she's in charge.
According to the Montreal Gazette, she told journalists at the launch of her line,
"Let me be clear.
I am the boss."
In the wake of her husband's death, Dion found new strength.
She said,
"I went through a lot and I'm not the only one.
People have gone through a lot, and so they probably understand what I'm saying right
now.
Sometimes when you go through a lot, whether it's disappointment or a loss, there is a
force that takes over when you believe."
Dion's driven personality has no doubt played a huge role in her incredible success.
She puts in long hours to make sure that her music is flawless.
Diane Warren, who has written some of Dion's most iconic songs, told Billboard what's impressive
about working with the singer, saying,
"I went to her show, and it's almost two hours.
She's not lip-synching.
She's singing songs that aren't easy to sing.
Then we went in the studio at 11:30 at night and she stayed until, like, 4 a.m. and would
not leave until it was perfect."
Warren noted that this was just all proof that Dion would always be successful.
According to her, Dion's dedication is a rarity in the music industry.
She explained,
"A lot of times you work with singers and they're like, 'Aw, I'll finish next time.'"
Dion, however, always gives it her all.
There are so many reasons to admire Dion, but one of the biggest reasons she's a role
model is because she is so unabashedly herself.
With Dion, what you see is what you get.
She told The Guardian in 2007,
"For me, being cool is to feel happy and stable and sure of myself.
I think when you become a parent you become more involved in life.
I take every decision more carefully."
Dion is living life on her own terms.
She noted that she felt the need to "prove" herself in the music world when she was starting
out her career, but those days are long gone.
She explained,
"Not any more.
I'm doing this for fun."
While some celebrities share few personal details with the public, Dion has always worn
her heart on her sleeve.
Dion believes that her realness and authenticity are why she is so beloved by her many fans.
She told V Magazine in 2012,
"I've been an open book all my life."
Dion admitted that she has been criticized for being so honest with the world, but said
that she had no intention of putting on a persona for the public.
She said,
"I'm like this in my real life."
Being an open book isn't just about allowing her fans to see into her real life, though.
To Dion, the phrase also conveys her belief that she is the author of her own story.
In 2016, she told Elle France that she doesn't have her future mapped out, but that she's
excited for the journey ahead of her.
She explained,
"I like to think that my life is an open book and there are still plenty of pages to write."
Dion has experienced phenomenal triumphs in her life, but she's also dealt with a lot
of grief.
Instead of allowing her heartbreak to overcome her, though, she's channeled her pain into
her music.
The singer explained to People that music is a source of healing for her.
In fact, her album Courage, the first English-language album she released after her husband passed
away, helped Dion heal from losing the love of her life.
She told CBS This Morning that she poured herself not just into the production of the
album but also into planning the tour that accompanied it.
This was a big change from how she previously recorded albums, saying that she hadn't wanted
to be involved in any meetings, preferring to leave all of the leg work to her husband.
She admitted,
"I just wanted to sing the best way that I could and that's it."
Dion didn't just find working on the album cathartic, but contributing to its production
also helped her realize that she's in fact, quote, "not just a singer."
While Dion previously said that she could not see herself falling in love with anyone
but her late husband, she began to open her heart to the possibility of falling in love
again a few years after his death.
In 2019, more than three years after his passing, she told CBS This Morning that, while her
husband will always be with her, the pain of losing him has subsided.
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, saying,
"Say yes for love maybe one day, I don't know."
For now, though, Dion is just going with the flow and seeing what the future holds.
"If I do, that would be great, if I don't that would be great because I'm still in love."
Adding that she's enjoying her life and career, she explained,
"I'm not stressed at all.
I feel like I can do anything I want."
Dion is living her best life, and it's pretty inspiring.
As she's gotten older, she's learned not to care what other people think of her and has
a newfound sense of independence.
She said that her life basically started over at 50, describing herself to Elle in 2019
as:
"A woman assuming her own destiny."
She explained that, for years, her life was centered on her voice and that she was always
practicing singing.
Now, though, she's learned:
"It's never too late to start.
At 51, I have the sense that I am at my pinnacle!"
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Dion revealed that she feels as if she's getting
younger now, and she loves dancing and shopping.
She credits her friends with her new view on life, saying,
"To go out with them, I feel like I'm younger."
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