Grammy award-winning Canadian singer Céline Dion recently took to Instagram to wish her late husband René Angélil a happy 30th wedding anniversary.
“You still fill our hearts, every day. You are everything for us. We miss you so much,” she wrote. “Happy 30th anniversary, mon amour!”
The singer also included her and Angélil’s children’s names in the post (René-Charles, Eddy and Nelson), letting people know just how much their entire family misses him.
Dion’s husband died in January 2016 at age 74 from throat cancer after being with the singer in some way, shape or form for over 35 years.
To celebrate the couple and honor their lasting love, we have decided to dive deep into their relationship, including how they met, what they had to say to each other way back when and how Dion responded to her husband’s passing. Keep scrolling for more.
Céline Dion and René Angélil’s love story
Dion and Angélil first met in 1980, when he was 38 and she was only 12. At the time, he was a music producer who had taken an interest in the young singer and decided to represent her.
Seven years later, Dion and Angélil went on their first official date together, despite the 26-year age gap between them. Then, in 1991, a year after Dion’s first English album, Unison, was released, the two became engaged. None of this was revealed, though, until 1993, when the duo first went public with their relationship.
“We kind of kept it cool because of my career. I was living that love secretly,” Dion said in 2016. “When I was at the age to be able to say to people … It was like bang! Love! Love always wins.”
A year after letting people know about their love affair, Dion and Angélil got married. It was the singer’s first marriage but the producer’s third.
“The dress couldn’t have been big enough,” Dion said. “I could’ve had three times the size on my head. I could’ve had six different dresses that night because he [Angélil] was, and still is, such a wonderful human being. He brought [out] the best in me. He really did.”
“This is a moment that will be with me for the rest of my life.”
Sadly, though, the couple only had four years of marital bliss before tragedy struck.
Facing challenges together
In 1998, Angélil was diagnosed with throat cancer, causing Dion to take a two-year break from singing to focus on him.
Then, in 2000, after he entered into remission, the two renewed their vows in Las Vegas. That was also the year the duo announced they were expecting their first child together after undergoing several rounds of fertility treatments.
“He’s a miracle child,” Dion said of her son, René-Charles. “I breastfed René-Charles for a year, and I’ll never forget it. His eyes, his skin, his smell, his sleeping, the sweetness, the love, there’s nothing like it.”
They then waited nine years before deciding to have more kids, welcoming their twins, Nelson and Eddy, in 2010.
Four years later, Angélil was diagnosed with cancer for a second time.
“I am scared of losing him because it’s bad,” Dion said in 2015. “But I have to show myself, my husband and my kids that I’m strong and we’re okay.”
“I’ll say, ‘You’re scared? I understand. Talk to me about it,.’And René says to me, ‘I want to die in your arms.’ Okay, fine, I’ll be there; you’ll die in my arms.”
Angélil died on January 14, 2016, two days before his 74th birthday.
“I think I will probably grieve for the rest of my life,” says Dion. “I miss him a lot—for my partner, for the man I was embracing, kissing, making love with. My worries, my dreams.”
Céline Dion’s life after loss
Dion is now 56 and battling her own health issues in the shape of a stiff person syndrome diagnosis, which she says is like having somebody strangle you.
“If I cook—because I love to cook—my fingers, my hands, will get in position… It’s cramping, but it’s like in a position where you cannot unlock them,” she continued. “Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life…sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I’m used to.”
Despite her health struggles, Dion is still performing regularly and often posts about her life on social media.
