Céline Dion’s husband, René Angélil, has died at the age of 73, the singer announced on her Facebook page.
The statement said he died on Thursday morning at her residence in Las Vegas “after a long and courageous fight against cancer”.
The post, written in French, added: “Other information will be provided in the next few days.” It said the family wished to mourn in private.
Angélil, Dion’s longtime manager, discovered her when she was 12 years old. They married in 1994, when she was 26, and the couple had three children together including twins born in 2010.
Their marriage was initially opposed by Dion’s mother, not only because of their 26-year age gap but because Angélil had three children from two previous unions, the singer said in an interview in 2013. “I have to say that for my mom he was not the prince charming – the ideal prince charming. It was very difficult,” Dion told Access Hollywood.com in 2013.
According to reports, Angélil’s illness, first diagnosed in 1998, prompted Dion to put her career on hold in 2014 and cancel all her concert dates, including a major tour of Asia and the suspension of her Las Vegas residency. It was reported at the time that Angélil had had a cancerous tumour removed the previous year.
In an emotional interview with USA Today the following year Dion revealed how Angélil had insisted that she returned to her work. “I didn’t want to be here at first, I don’t need it,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, I love singing for people. But I have priorities.
“But René really gave me a gift … all my grieving, it was during this last year. I think I’ve got this. For now. When it hits me, it’s going to hit me. But my biggest job is to tell my husband: we’re fine. I’ll take care of our kids. You’ll watch from another spot.”
She added: “We have asked [doctors] many times, how long does he have, three weeks, three months? René wants to know … But they say they don’t know.”
