International superstar Celine Dion had three children with her late husband René Angélil:
younger twins Nelson and Eddy and eldest son René-Charles. Time has flown, and René-Charles
is all grown up. Here's a look at how Celine Dion's oldest son became the gorgeous young
man he is today.
Celine Dion didn't start planning to have a family until she was in her 30s, which is
widely considered by the medical community to be a more difficult age to conceive a child.
What’s more, her husband René Angélil was diagnosed with cancer in 1998 and was
undergoing chemotherapy and radiation, forcing the couple to freeze some of his sperm. However,
his sperm count was apparently already too low for standard IVF treatment.
After a specialized procedure known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection, Dion finally completed a
successful pregnancy. René-Charles Angélil was born in Palms West Hospital in Loxahatchee,
Florida on Jan. 25, 2001. According to David Foster, a record producer and close family
friend, it was a long-awaited joy.
The Dion family goes much farther than just Celine and her children. Dion is the youngest
of 14 kids. The amount of children no doubt stressed the family's already struggling financials,
as their father worked as a butcher for $167 a week.
“We never had money. But, we were never poor. I think they gave us the essentials.”
Dion told Vanity Fair:
"We were safe and warm and taken care of. Three or four of us in the same bed was normal
to us [...] We were given love and affection and support. What else did we need?"
It all appears to have been for the best, though, as now René-Charles has a whopping
13 aunts and uncles to dote on him. “
Dion's sister Liette told People:
"[Celine] won't be seeing much of her little boy. Everyone will want to hold him!"
Nearly 10 years after René-Charles' miraculous birth, his mother gifted him with not one
but two siblings — Dion gave birth to twin boys on Oct. 23, 2010. At the age of 42, Celine
was starting to feel the exhaustion of motherhood and had to focus on the babies over René-Charles.
She told Hello! Canada:
"My little boy, René-Charles, has a fever and I want to be there for him but I am breastfeeding
the babies every two-and-a-half hours.”
Even at the young age of 10, René-Charles showed he was mature enough to be a supportive
big brother.
Dion said to Oprah magazine:
"He was an amazing trooper. Very sensitive. For every trial, he was with us emotionally."
However, he was hilariously less than impressed with his new siblings when they finally arrived.
Dion admitted:
"René-Charles is looking at them like, 'Mom the only thing they do is look around and
cry."'
It looks like he eventually came around to the value of family, however. Celine's Instagram
is full of loving photos of the entire family together.
The regional Quebec press had a very weird fascination with René-Charles' hair when
he was growing up. Articles constantly asked why Dion let her sons grow their hair so long.
What’s more, in 2013, Dion went on Katie, Katie Couric's talk show, and revealed that
one of the twins, Nelson, liked running around in high heels.
Dion joked:
"I don't know how he does it, but I'm not the only one in this family who loves shoes,
believe me.”
The internet responded with its usual tact, but Dion didn't — and still doesn't — seem
to care. In 2018 she launched her gender-neutral line of children's clothing, Celinununu. As
she told CNN, she was inspired by her experiences raising René-Charles and the twins.
"I thought they were going to go for the big superheroes. They were looking at princesses.”
She told CNN:
“They all wanted to be Minnie Mouse [...] And I end up saying to myself, 'You know what,
it's OK.' You know why it's OK? Because they're talking, they're finding themselves."
René-Charles was able to grow up without a hard focus on gender expectations.
Dion made sure René-Charles and his brothers got to have as much of a normal upbringing
as possible.
She told Oprah:
"I always say to the bodyguards when we go bowling, for example, 'If the fans come, don't
tell them no. But ask them if they can wait because I'm having a moment with my child,
and if they don't mind waiting, I will be pleased to give them an autograph if they
want."
Furthermore, she apparently built a private home in Florida where the entire family, including
her parents and 13 siblings, could enjoy each other in peace. René-Charles likely didn't
have to suffer through sharing one bathroom with all of them, though!
René Angélil had recovered from his initial battle with throat cancer in 1999, but in
2013, the horrible disease reared its ugly head again. He underwent surgery to remove
the tumor in winter of that year, but the cancer did not subside. For the last two years
of his life, he would eat through a feeding tube as his health steadily declined. At the
time, René-Charles was still just a young teenager.
Celine opened up about her son's experience to Us Weekly, saying:
"I have tremendous respect for my oldest, René-Charles, because he's showing strength
to see his dad this way, because he's been his anchor [...] When he was younger he knew
his dad was older but they bonded a lot. I'm sure it's hard for him."
René Angélil sadly passed away at the age of 73 on Jan. 14, 2016.
René-Charles gave the eulogy at his own father's funeral, demonstrating strength and maturity
at such a young age. His speech showed nothing but love in the face of tragedy.
He said to the congregation:
"Fifteen years is not a long time for a son to get to know his father. You had a busy
life, but we were communicating through golf, hockey, poker and smoked meat... and a lot
of other wonderful food, bonding more and more as time went by."
He went on to assure loved ones that he would keep his father's memory alive in the young
twins, Nelson and Eddy.
"You left me now with enough good memories of you to share with my younger brothers.”
He added:
“As they grow older, without you being around, I'll make sure to pass on what I've learned
from you."
The whole Angelil family appears to have kept this promise and keeps Rene's memory alive
every single day.
Dion told The Sun in 2017:
“We kiss him every night actually. We have a little ritual where we say goodnight to
him with a little picture and all that."
She wrote to her oldest son in an Instagram post for his 18th birthday:
"Your father continues to guide you, helping you to make the right choices."
Despite his celebrity parents, René-Charles grew into a pretty average teenage boy. He
joined up with the local hockey teams and he’s also into golf.
“I’m very proud of him. He’s into music. He’s into golf. And he’s into hockey as
well.”
There's hilarious footage of Dion, darling of Canada and five-time Grammy winner, dancing
it up hockey-mom style at one of her son's games in Montreal. She's even sporting a jersey
with his name and number on it. It's beyond adorable.
René-Charles might have spent most of his childhood in Nevada, but there is Canadian
blood running through his veins.
Outside of that, he seems to enjoy hanging out with his friends — just like any other
teen.
It appears as if Dion's down-to-earth parenting has paid off, and she couldn't be more proud.
She told Us Weekly:
"He's a wonderful young man. He's entered his teenage years and sometimes we can go
really crazy, for some teenagers, but so far so good."
As once evidenced by his Instagram, René-Charles is fluent in French, translating many of his
posts into the romantic language. It all makes perfect sense, though, given his parents'
French-Canadian heritage.
Grammy-winning producer David Foster recalled the first time he heard Dion sing.
He said:
"[She was] belting out Top 40 hits, singing words and she didn't even know what she was
saying. She didn't speak hardly any English at all at that point."
Since then, she has released several albums in both English and French.
Dion, along with her large extended family, has been speaking to her children in French
since they were young, introducing them early. Clearly, they all grew up in a two-language
household.
He may have had a down-to-earth upbringing, but René-Charles did get a few celebrity
perks in his life. He attended the Billboard Music Awards in 2016, giving his mom the Icon
Award in a surprise appearance. While witnessing his mom's emotional performance, he managed
to rub elbows with other celebrities like Rihanna .
A year later, he returned to the 2017 Billboard Music Awards and met up with even more stars.
He met up with the popular band BTS after they had just won the award for Top Social
Artist.
“Are you a fan of BTS?”
“They’re pretty good. I like them. Yeah. Yeah”
René-Charles' Instagram used to show off pictures of the young teen hanging with big
names like Drake, DJ Khaled and Miley Cyrus.
Then, in August 2018, he took a snapshot with rapper Post Malone and Khalid at the Osheaga
Music Festival in Montreal. Considering all these appearances, it should come as no surprise
that René-Charles has a passion for music, and even released some of his own tunes under
the name Big Tip.
The music gene continues to be strong in the Dion family. In May 2018, René-Charles dropped
six songs onto his SoundCloud, four original rap songs and two covers of The Weeknd's songs,
under the name Big Tip. The covers hit Number 1 on two of the Canadian Soundcloud R&B charts
for that week. He quickly shared his success with mom, telling the Montreal Gazette:
"I played it to her for the first time [...] I just felt like keeping it on the low. But
she loved it. She was just kind of stunned at first, because she'd never heard anything
from me."
Critics were skeptical of the teen's privilege as the son of a famous artist, but René-Charles
is not interested in using his mom's connections.
He said to the Montreal Gazette:
"I could have been like, 'Hey mom, I'm kind of into this music stuff, let's do something
about it.' But I wanted to prove to myself that I'm able to do it. Not just because my
mom is who my mom is."
There's no telling where his very young career will go.
"The girls are starting to come now, I'm starting to be stressed out."
“How are you coping with that?”
“Do I have a choice?”
It's possible Dion worries due to her own difficulties growing up and dating René Angélil
— who was 28 years her senior.
She admitted to Access Hollywood,
"If I reversed roles... RC, if I think of him and he comes [to me] with this lady who
has kids and she's 45 and she think she knows best, [I'd be] like, 'Take your hand off of
my son.'"
Mama bear instincts aside, she trusts him enough to make good decisions.
In an interview on Lorraine, she said:
"He does stuff sometimes that, I have to say, I don't necessarily agree with what he chooses
to try, but as long as he's using his intelligence and his brain, I trust him.”
“I trust him. I'm very, very proud of him!" “
You’re a cool mom.”
In December 2020, René-Charles took to Instagram to share a tease that music was, quote, "on
the way." Less than a month later, CasiNo.5 debuted.
As People noted, his mother gushed over him in her Instagram Stories, expressing how proud
she was, saying:
"It touches me deeply that one of his passions is also one of mine."
She also included a link to the EP.
The Las Vegas Review Journal enthused:
"Angelil has produced an energetic, high-velocity verbal sprint peppered with references to
his hometown of Las Vegas."
His mother, however, seems to have always called him RC. On the musician's 20th birthday,
Celine posted a sweet photo of her placing her hand lovingly on his face with a caption
advising:
"Remember to never stop believing in yourself, because I believe in you."
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