Céline Dion paid tribute to her husband René Angélil on the ninth anniversary of his death. The singer shared a photograph of herself with their three sons on Instagram as she remembered the late music producer and manager, who died of throat cancer in 2016 at 73.
“René, we can’t believe you’ve been gone nine years already,” Dion wrote. “Not a day goes by that we don’t feel your presence, RC, Eddy, Nelson and I. You were my greatest champion, my partner, and the one who always saw the best in me. I honor you and you are forever missed mon amour…. We love you.”
Dion met Angélil when she auditioned for him at only 12 years old. She recounted to People, “While I was singing he started to cry. I knew then I had done a good job.” They began dating when she was 19 and got engaged in 1991. The couple married in 1994 at Montréal’s Notre-Dame Basilica. Angélil died on Jan. 14, 2016 while Dion was in the midst of a residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Angélil suffered from three bouts of cancer since his diagnosis in 1998, but had been in remission at one point for a decade, having appeared in Simple Plan’s 2008 “Save You” video that paid tribute to cancer survivors. Dion told the press she was prepared to deal with his death.
“René really gave me a gift,” she told USA Today around the time of her return to Caesars Palace. “All my grieving, it was during this last year. I think I’ve got this. For now. When it hits me, it’s going to hit me, 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.’”
Dion’s career has slowed down in recent years following her diagnosis with stiff-person syndrome in 2022. Last year, she opened up about dealing with the disease that has stopped her from performing for several years in a cover story for Vogue France.
“I haven’t beat the disease, as it’s still within me and always will be. I hope that we’ll find a miracle, a way to cure it with scientific research, but for now I have to learn to live with it,” Dion told the magazine. “So that’s me, now with stiff-person syndrome. Five days a week I undergo athletic, physical and vocal therapy. I work on my toes, my knees, my calves, my fingers, my singing, my voice … I have to learn to live with it now and stop questioning myself.”
Despite her ongoing battle, Dion wowed audiences with her performance at the Paris Olympics opening ceremony last summer. During the ceremony, Dion belted out Édith Piaf’s famous song, “Hymne à L’amour,” or “The Hymn to Love,” while standing beneath the illumination of the six Olympic rings.
