Céline Dion has been an icon in both the English
and French speaking music industries for over 4 decades.
And while her success is almost beyond measure,
she's faced many challenges as a performer,
wife and mother. Most attention given to Céline Dion from
the 1990s and beyond has been praised.
But throughout her childhood, in the early years of her
career,
Dion was bullied and mocked as she recalled to BANG
Showbiz in
2013. I was definitely not very good at school.
I was not the cool dude.
I was not good looking.
I was feeling awkward, my teeth were all crooked and
we were poor a little bit,
so the clothes were passed on from my brothers to
my sisters to me.
Even after she'd established herself as a musical star on
the rise in Quebec,
Dionne continued to be mocked about her appearance and her
smile by the French language media.
One magazine even came up with the nickname Canine Dionne
to describe her less than straight teeth.
Dionne was so affected by the negative attention that she
started to perform differently,
tilting her head upward and holding the microphone in front
of her mouth in an attempt to hide her teeth
from audiences and cameras.
Perhaps because she was raised in a household with 13
brothers and sisters,
the idea of a sizable family of her own was
always in the cards for Dionne.
She personally places motherhood above all things,
including music. Telling people I'm not really a singer.
My life is to be a mom.
It's what I enjoy the most.
It's my most amazing reward.
I will take a chance with my music.
I don't take risks with my family.
Sadly, Dionne did have to take some risks and seek
out medical assistance to forge the family she so desired.
Her first child with husband Renee Angelio.
A son named Renee Charles Angelio was born in January
2001 and conceived through in vitro fertilization treatments.
6 years of traditional methods had failed to result in
a conception for the couple and Dion calls her first
born son her miracle child as a result.
After the birth of Renee Charles,
Dion and Angelio attempted to get pregnant again and once
more sought the assistance of fertility doctors.
Dion went through six rounds of IVF before getting pregnant,
which sadly ended in a miscarriage.
However, in 2010, Dion gave birth to fraternal twin boys
Eddie and Nelson,
who the singer was raised alone since the death of
their father shortly after their 5th birthday.
What makes me laugh,
my kids?
Dion's voice is legendarily powerful and if she were ever
to lose that instrument,
it would be a tragic loss to her life and
livelihood.
Sadly, the pop singer faced that possibility in
2012 when she was diagnosed with a serious ailment after
Dionne publicly struggled to sing at a sound check before
a show in February
2012, she sought the help of top Laryngeal physiologist Gerald
Burke at UCLA Medical Center,
who diagnosed a weak and right vocal cord and advised
the singer to rest her voice for six to eight
weeks.
Six years later, medical issues once more threatened Dionne's abilities.
As the singer's Facebook account announced in March
2018, Celine has been dealing with the condition in her
middle ear known as Pachulus Eustachian tube,
which causes hearing irregularities and makes it extremely difficult to
sing.
Despite treating the condition with different medications for well over
a year,
the regimen stopped being effective.
To restore her hearing ability and seeing at the level
to which she'd grown accustomed,
Dion had to submit to a surgical procedure.
Needing to recover from the surgery,
Dion postponed 3 weeks worth of her Las Vegas residency
dates in
2018. In November 2021, Céline Dion was supposed to start
a new residency show in Las Vegas,
but a few weeks before its debut,
she announced that the first three months of dates would
be postponed.
The reason for the cancellation was Dionne's health had been
on the decline for quite some time,
and she was experiencing debilitating and disruptive muscle spasms.
Writing about the rescheduled dates on Instagram,
Dionne wrote. I'm especially sorry for disappointing all the fans
who've been making their plans to come to Las Vegas.
Now I have to focus on getting better.
About a year later, after getting back into the business
of singing professionally,
Dionne called off more concert dates because she was unable
to perform once again,
citing her frightening muscle spasms.
Doctors diagnosed the on with the disease known as Stiff
person syndrome,
an exceedingly uncommon autoimmune and neurological disorder that manifests painfully
in spasms and very rigid muscles and strictly limits mobility
and the capacity to sing.
Stiff person syndrome is diagnosed at a rate of about
one in 1,000,000 people,
and while there's no cure,
its symptoms can be alleviated somewhat with physical therapy and
reduced exposure to light and sound.
At the age of 12,
Celine sent a demo tape to Rene Angelil after her
brother found his name on the back of an LP.
He agreed to be her manager and said about making
Dionne a star,
even mortgaging his home to get the money to record
her first album.
The relationship between the musician and her manager,
who was 26 years her senior,
was purely professional at first until Dionne developed romantic feelings
around the time she turned 18.
They became a couple, although Dionne's mother was initially opposed
to the relationship because Angelio had been through two divorces.
They got married in 1994,
and soon after, Angelio faced health issues,
receiving a throat cancer diagnosis in
1999, Dion stopped performing for two years to be with
her husband.
During radiation treatments and surgeries in remission from 2000 onward,
the cancer returned in the form of a throat tumor.
In 2013, Angelio resigned as Dion's manager,
and she took another break to be with him.
The cancer came back for a third time,
and in January 2016, Angelio died at age 73.
Losing my husband, for my kids to lose their father,
it, it was quite something.
Among Celine Dion's thirteen siblings is her older sister,
Liette. In
1977, Liette's daughter Corrine was born and later diagnosed with
cystic fibrosis,
a medical condition that causes thick mucus to develop in
the lungs,
causing damage to several body systems.
Corrine died from complications of the disease at age 16
while her aunt held her as Dionne recalled the people.
I started to sing softly in her ear and out
of nowhere,
her eyes closed. One tear came down Corrine's cheek and
then she went.
Dionne later recorded the 1995 French song Vogue in tribute
to her niece and became highly active in the charitable
organization Cystic Fibrosis Canada.
Decades later, the year 2016 saw more immense tragedy for
the extended Dionne family.
In January, Dionne's older brother Daniel died at 59 from
brain,
tongue and throat cancer, just two days after the cancer
related death of Angelil.
In the summer of 2016,
Celine Dion's sister Liette learned that her husband,
Guy Poirier, was diagnosed with cancer of the bones,
brain and lungs, and he sadly died in August of
the same year.