Celine Dion met and “fell in love” with her husband, who was 26 years her senior, when she was 12-years-old.
The My Heart Will Go On singer, 55, was married to her former manager René Angélil for 22 years up until his death. Celine and René first met in 1980 when they worked together.
The couple began a relationship seven years later when the singer was 19, but kept their romance a secret. In 1993, the pair revealed they were engaged and tied the knot in a lavish ceremony the following year.
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They went on to welcome three sons; René-Charles, born in 2001, and twins Nelson and Eddy, born in 2010. Three years after the birth of their twins, René discovered his throat cancer had returned, having beaten it once in 2000.
(Image: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Despite having an operation to remove the tumour, the Canadian music producer discovered his cancer was terminal in 2014. René passed away two years later aged 73 in January 2016.
Celine recalled the start of her relationship with René, remembering how her feelings were present from the beginning. She told CBS’s Mo Rocca: “I fell in love with him immediately.
(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
“Not in the romance way, I was 12 years old. I was in love with the way he treated everyone around me, including my whole family and myself.”
She opened up about his heartbreaking battle with the disease, admitting their family struggled as they watched René’s life slowly come to an end. “Before he left, it was very, very difficult for all of us,” the mum-of-three said.
(Image: Getty Images)
“For me especially, and my children, to see the man of my life die a little bit more every day. And when he left, it was kind of a relief for me that the man that I love, the only man that I kissed, the only man that I loved.”
The star continued: “Yeah. I never kissed another man in my life. So the man of my life was my partner, and we were one. So when he stopped suffering I said to myself, he’s ok. And he deserves not to suffer.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
