Céline Dion has revealed she’s still very much in a state of mourning, more than a year after losing her husband, René Angélil, to throat cancer.
“I think I will probably grieve for the rest of my life,” the 49-year-old says in an interview with The Sun.
“Rene has prepared me for all my life since I’m 12. I have never met another man in my life, never kissed another man in my life.
“I miss him a lot. I miss him a lot — for my partner, for the man I was embracing, kissing, making love with. My worries, my dreams . . . ”
Rene, 26 years Celine’s senior, believed in her talent right from the start, and became her manager when she was just 13.
But the Quebec-native explains that she’s managed to find comfort in her three children – René-Charles, 16, and six-year-old twins Eddy and Nelson.
“I organise myself to not feel lonely,” Dion said. “So I got myself a huge, huge, huge bed and I sleep with my twins. They are comforting me a lot. I need them. I need them close.”
“When it’s time for them to say they want their room, their room’s ready. But we watch a lot of TV together. I’m discovering Disney,” she added.
The pair tied the knot on 17 December 1994.
The My Heart Will Go On hit-maker also opened up about how she works to support her children in the wake of their father’s tragic passing.
“They’re really well because I’m strong,” she said. “I’m sounding pretentious but if I don’t show them the way, they will question it. ‘Papa is not coming back but Papa is in your heart’.”
The singer-songwriter said that the family carry out a “little ritual,” to help the boys communicate with their late father.
“We kiss him every night,” she said. “We have a little ritual where we say goodnight to him with a little picture. Then the kids talk to him. And they write words, put them in balloons and we send the balloons to the sky.”
Rene was diagnosed with throat cancer five years into their marriage.
The couple are pictured here with son René-Charles.
When pressed as to whether she could ever move on with another love, Celine explained that she isn’t yet ready.
“Now it is definitely too soon for me,” she said. “I am definitely in love with [René], married to him.”
“He’s the love of my life,” she continued. “It’s very difficult for me to see myself with another person. The love that I have for him, I live it every day. And as a woman, we do have emotions and feelings that come and go. And it’s always with him.”
Celine and Rene are parents to three beautiful boys – René-Charles, 14, and twins Nelson and Eddy, 5.
The couple of more than 20 years had a remarkable love story, facing some of life’s toughest battles.
Rene, 26 years Celine’s senior, believed in her talent right from the start, and became her manager when she was just 13.
“I went to his office and I sang in front of him and I was 12 years old, and we’ve been working together since that time,” Celine recalled in 1995.
The pair fell in love and tied the knot on December 17, 1994, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
“I’m not surprised that we married each other, because we have the same dreams. We have the same goals. We respect each other,” Celine mused a year later.
Five years after their wedding, their lives took a dramatic turn when Rene, was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1999.
Tragically, Rene passed away on January 14 at the age of 73 after a long battle with throat cancer.
