When Celine Dion’s husband René Angélil (73) was diagnosed with throat cancer, she quit her Vegas residency to be by his side.
Now, after a year-long absence, she says she’s resuming her show at Caesar’s Palace, at her husband’s insistance, and despite his failing health.
“I didn’t want to be here at first, I don’t need it. Don’t get me wrong, I love singing for people, but I have priorities,” Dion said on Sunday. “But my biggest job is to tell my husband, we’re fine. I’ll take care of our kids. You’ll watch us from another spot.”
“We have asked the doctors many times, how long does he have, three weeks, three months? René wants to know,” Dion said. “But they say they don’t know.”
In the meantime, René can’t eat or swallow. “He can’t eat so I feed him,” Dion said while wiping away the tears. “He’s got a feeding tube. I have to feed him three times a day.”
Dion told USA Today her husband already planned the details of both his death and his funeral. “I’ll say, ‘You’re scared? I understand. Talk to me about it,'” she said, pausing. “And René says to me, ‘I want to die in your arms.’ OK, fine, I’ll be there, you’ll die in my arms.”
She is certain that when Angélil’s time does come, she will have her dark moments, but she will “always choose the light.”
“It’s important to open your eyes in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror and ask two questions: Are you dead, or do you have a ticket to ride?” she says. “There are just two tickets. If you’re alive, have a good day. Because today is the most important day of your life.”
Angélil became Dion’s manager in 1980 when she was just 12 years old. The two married in 1994, when the singer was 26. (via USA Today)
(Photos: Pacific Coast News)
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