Céline Dion is convinced she will get back to performing amid her Stiff Person Syndrome battle as she is “well surrounded” by loved ones.
The 56-year-old ‘My Heart Will Go On’ singer was forced to stop performing following her 2022 diagnosis of the rare condition, and she has now opened up about how she is leaning on loved ones to make such a dramatic recovery she will be able to get back on stage.
She told Australia’s ‘Sunrise’ morning show in an interview to promote her ‘I Am Céline Dion’ documentary, which is in cinemas from Tuesday (18.06.24): “I’m well surrounded, my voice is coming back, my passion has never left, my voice is getting stronger. I’m going to come back on stage. I can’t wait.”
Céline told in the same chat how her children are worried she will be killed by her battle with Stiff Person Syndrome.
She added: “I don’t have my mom. I don’t have my dad. My kids are scared because they lost their dad.
“They’re wondering if I’m going to die.”
Céline had her three sons – René-Charles, 23, and twins Nelson and Eddy, 13, with her music producer husband of 22 years René Angélil, who died from throat cancer aged 73 in 2016.
Her illness causes progressive muscle stiffness and repeated muscle spasms.
The singer was first hit symptoms in 2008, but they worsened by 2021 when she had to postpone her Las Vegas residency due to “severe” spams and she later cancelled her ‘Courage’ world tour.
She also recently admitted she did not “take the time” to understand the early symptoms of her Stiff Person Syndrome.
She told broadcaster Hoda Kotb, 59, on the ‘Today’ show: “I did not take the time I should have stopped, take the time to figure it out.”
Referring to how she was caring for ill René at the time she was suffering, she added: “My husband as well was fighting for his own life. I had to raise my kids, I had to hide. I had to try to be a hero.”
But she added about her symptoms becoming too unbearable to stop sharing with her loved ones: “Feeling my body leaving me, holding on to my own dreams… I could not do this anymore.
“Lying for me, the burden was too much. Lying to the people who got me where I am today, I could not do it anymore.”
She added her stiffness can also sometimes feel like parts of her body are locked into place, saying: “It feels like, if I point my feet, they will stay (there.)
“It’s cramping but it’s like in a position where you cannot unlock them.
“I have broken ribs at one point because sometimes when its very severe, it can break.”
