Céline Dion says she finds strength in and for her three sons to battle stiff person syndrome, the rare neurological disorder that has prevented her from carrying on her celebrated singing career. The “My Heart Will Go On” and “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” hitmaker was diagnosed with the life-altering illness in August 2022, nearly six years after her husband, René Angélil, died from throat cancer. The couple share three children — René-Charles, 23, and 13-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy.
Although Dion had mysterious health struggles since the mid-2000s, her symptoms worsened in the years ahead of her diagnosis, which she revealed publicly in December 2022. The illness, which she has said affects “every aspect” of her daily life, presented her with excruciating muscle spasms, and difficulty walking and breathing. She also said that she has broken ribs from the spasms and her singing voice sometimes becomes more nasal.
“I barely could walk at one point, and I was missing very much living,” the 56-year-old singer told People this week ahead of the June 25 release of her Prime Video documentary “I Am: Céline Dion.” “My kids started to notice. I was like, ‘OK, they already lost a parent.
I don’t want them to be scared.’ “I let them know, ‘You lost your dad, [but] mom has a condition and it’s different. I’m not going to die.
It’s something that I’m going to learn to live with,'” she added. And learn to live with it, she has.
