Celine Dion Isn't Thinking Of Romance Again, Five Years After Husband's Death: 'We Still Live With Him'

May 20, 2021

Canadian singer Céline Dion, 53, has lived a full life thanks to her professional success and large family. Not only is she one of Canada’s most popular musicians, who has had astronomical worldwide record sales, but she is also a mother to three children: 20-year-old René-Charles Angélil and 10-year-old twins Eddy and Nelson Angélil.

However, the star was met with tragedy when she lost her husband, René Angélil, to throat cancer in 2016. René was 73 years old. Since then, Dion has been mourning the loss of her partner of 22 years, whom she first met when she was 12 years old and later got engaged to at 25.

In multiple interviews with Today, Dion has opened up about her loss. Even though it’s been years since René’s passing, Dion said that she still isn’t ready to date and is unsure whether she’ll ever find someone new. In a more recent 2021 interview with Today, conducted just after her husband’s fifth death anniversary, she again spoke to the sadness of losing René.

Throughout Dion’s life, the singer has paid tribute to her husband, dedicating songs to him and singing his praises in interviews with the press. René entered into the singer’s life as her manager and mentor, though their relationship turned romantic in 1987, following René's divorce from his second wife. In 1994, the couple got married at Montréal's Notre-Dame Basilica in a wedding ceremony that was broadcast on Canadian television. Only five years later, René was diagnosed with cancer for the first time. He would battle the disease for years until his death in 2016. But the diagnosis — along with fertility problems — didn’t stop the couple from having three children and an over 20-year-long marriage.

"Losing my husband, for my kids to lose their father, it was quite something," Dion told Today in May 2021. "I feel like René has given me so much through the years and still today. I see my kids. I look at them — we live with him. We still live with him. He's part of our lives every day, so I have to say that I feel very, very strong."

The 53-year-old singer paid tribute to René just this past January in a heartfelt post on Instagram that marked her husband’s fifth death anniversary. Alongside a photo of Dion and René holding hands in front of the ocean, the “My Heart Will Go On” singer wrote:

“René, it’s been 5 years already… There’s not one day that we don’t think about you. We’re reaching out to you now more than ever, to guide us, protect us, and continue to watch over us. And we pray that you'll shine your love on the entire world, to all those at this very moment, who are facing incredibly difficult times. You are in our hearts and in our lives forever.”

According to Good Housekeeping, the singer first met her husband-to-be after one of her siblings sent a tape of a then 12-year-old singer to René, a well-known music manager in Canada. René, who was impressed, invited Dion for an audition, which quickly led to Dion releasing her first album under the French-Canadian manager. When Dion turned 19 in 1987, René and Dion went on their first date together, which the singer revealed in the liner notes of the album “The Colour of My Love."

Just four years later, the couple was engaged, though their relationship was still a secret. But after the couple decided to tie the knot, their romance didn’t stay a secret for long, and in 1994, the two had a heavily publicized wedding in Montréal.

The first bit of bad news came in 1998 when René received his first cancer diagnosis. However, the couple remained optimistic about René's health after he was declared cancer-free in 2000. But 13 years later, after the couple had had three children together, doctors again diagnosed René with cancer, which the music manager fought for 3 years before passing in 2016.

“I went back in my dressing room and I saw him looking pretty devastated, in shock, and I was like, ‘What’s going on,’” Dion recalled in a 2015 interview with ABC. “He said, ‘I have cancer again. The doctor just called me and I have cancer again.'"

Since then, Dion has been candid about the pain she felt upon René's passing, and in a May 2021 interview with Today, she took the time to explain the momentous loss she has experienced.

And when asked whether Dion might consider moving on and dating someone else, she replied by saying, “I don’t know. I have no idea.”

“But right this second, love is so big right now in my life, with my kids, with life itself,” she continued. “I'm not thinking about a relationship and falling in love again. I don't. Do I have to say that it will never happen anymore? I don't know. I don't know."

What do you think of Dion’s decision to hold off from dating? What do you think of her relationship with her late husband? Let us know — and be sure to pass this story on to friends, family members and other Céline Dion fans.