so you haven't walked out here for months
many many months yes many months in fact it's been a year since celine dion last performed on this
las vegas stage built specially for her to belt out those iconic songs like my heart will go on
for much of the past year she's been silent dealing privately with the kind of news all
families dread her husband of 20 years rene angelil diagnosed with throat cancer in 2013 again
it was december 17th and i will never forget because it was a wedding anniversary and i
was rehearsing for the voice and after the rehearsal i went back in my dressing room and
i saw him looking pretty devastated in shock and i was like what's going on and he said
danny said i have cancer again the doctor just called me and i have cancer again
and at that moment honestly my heart started to beat faster but my body shut off and i was like
i'm gonna go put makeup on and i'm gonna go sing incredible
and i'm gonna forget how i feel right now incredible and i went on i signed the song
and then we went to the hotel and then reality started to strike
it took a toll on me celine and renee met when she was just 12. he became her manager
her mentor and later the love of her life helping turn those early ballots into gold
the devastating diagnosis made her residency in vegas a struggle
celine exhausted torn between her two passions the stage and her husband i had to leave him behind
because he wanted me to start your shows again how do you do that
sometimes and i think i'm used to it don't feel what you need to feel just do it
go on stage i did because you're a showbiz veteran you know how to no because i love him
and i did and it was very hard it was a grueling time renee going through painful treatment and
celine comforting their children r.c now 14 and the twins eddie and nelson what about our
kids what happens to papaya can't hear very well because of the radiation so his hearing is not
really well he can't use his mouth he's not he can eat so i i feed him he's got a feeding tube i have
to feed him three times a day and and he did all you did so much of this yourself i do this myself
and so i feed my husband and um and i feed my kids and unfortunately i had to say listen i
can't be half here and a half over there please allow me to stay home she was leaving behind an
unprecedented multi-million dollar deal at caesar's palace thank you so much just step
away and focus on what mattered most to her her family what kind of a toll has it taken on you
on the marriage i stopped we healed we focused we live a day at a time nobody knows what the future
is holding for us how how did you explain it all to the children what did you say to
them about daddy you know i really believe that children know it all without asking so much and
i also believe that us parents adult we try to put a stop to what we are afraid of explaining
because we're scared because we're worried if you tell the kids like i said to my children
you want to come and help me feed pipette today and not making a deal out of the feeding tube
you want to help me out want to hold the water you're a good feeder thank you so much come on
give a kiss to papa i have a lot of empathy for my teenager r.c renee charles he doesn't really
talk about it but i'm sure it's hard i'm sure it is in many ways celine dion is like so many of us
struggling vulnerable at times but growing stronger through suffering millions of people
in the world they go through this drama and and a lot of them even worse they don't even have time
to say goodbye and you know what i'm amazed how fortunate we are i think the fact that
i've had this open book type of personality and share it all it's me it's the person i am i think
it helped me in my life to sing my songs better now she'll seeing those powerful lyrics again with
a new understanding of love and devotion celine announcing she's taking the stage once again
starting august 27th and this is where i'll stand right here a lot of competition out
there now mariah carey is coming to town britney spears has been here does that make you any more
nervous i think it's going to help all of us to be the best of ourselves there's one
mariah there was one whitney there's one britney there's one of us you know i don't believe that
humans are all the same but while other stars may travel back and forth to vegas
celine has set up roots here it is our primary home and it's wonderful to be here
my teenager plays lots of golf now the arenas he's a hockey player believe it or not wow we were
looking for ice in the desert it was quite quite hard to find you know not so much what you want
what are you looking for you could find it here yeah exactly exactly though ailing renee remains
at his wife's side and couldn't resist joining us on stage so when you walk out here in august where
will rene be i don't want you to be the first robe because i'm not going to be able to sing
clearly love him a lot you both adore each other we do we complete each other we're one
they're in this together their love and the show
will go on for nightline in new york i'm deborah roberts