Celine Dion left Las Vegas to care for her husband René Angélil during his battle with throat cancer.
Now, as she prepares to jump back into her residency show at Caesar’s Palace, the 47-year-old opened up to USA Today about the decision to return to the stage despite her husband’s failing health.
“I didn’t want to be here at first, I don’t need it. Don’t get me wrong, I love singing for people, but I have priorities,” Dion said on Sunday. “But my biggest job is to tell my husband, we’re fine. I’ll take care of our kids. You’ll watch us from another spot.”
Angélil , 73, became Dion’s manager in 1980 when she was just 12 years old. The two married in 1994, when the singer was 26.
“We have asked [doctors] many times, how long does he have, three weeks, three months? René wants to know,” Dion said. “But they say they don’t know.”
Dion had previously opened up about her husband’s health, telling “Good Morning America” in March that the cancer has left him unable to talk or swallow.
“He can’t eat so I feed him,” Dion said while wiping away the tears. “He’s got a feeding tube. I have to feed him three times a day.”
Dion, who has three sons with Angélil and calls him “the only boyfriend I’ve ever had,” told USA Today her husband already planned the details of both his death and his funeral.
“I’ll say, ‘You’re scared? I understand. Talk to me about it,'” she said, pausing. “And René says to me, ‘I want to die in your arms.’ OK, fine, I’ll be there, you’ll die in my arms.”
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