A lifelong love. Celine Dion‘s husband, René Angélil, died in 2016, but the legendary songstress is devoted to keeping his memory alive.

“He’s as alive as he was prior to,” the Grammy winner told Australian TV show The Project in 2018. “Not physically with us, but I are living with him — I see him each day during the eyes of my youngsters.”

The “Because You Loved Me” artist met Angélil in 1980 when she was 12 years old and he used to be 38. At the time, the manufacturer was once married to Canadian pop celebrity Anne Renée, with whom he shared son Jean-Pierre and daughter Anne-Marie. (He additionally shared son Patrick with first wife Denyse Duquette.)

Angélil make a decision to regulate Dion’s occupation after her brother Jacques despatched him a demo tape of her debut single, “Ce n’était qu’un rêve.” He mortgaged his space to fund her first album, La Voix du Bon Dieu, which made her an instant famous person in her native Canada.

In her 2000 memoir, My Story, My Dream, Dion said that her relationship with Angélil — who divorced Renée in 1985 — grew to become romantic in 1988 after she gained the Eurovision Song Contest at age 20. “I threw myself into his palms,” she wrote. “Later that evening, I was seated on the head of the bed, legs folded underneath the covers. I used to be satisfied about being by myself with the person I cherished.”

While Angélil persevered managing Dion’s profession, the pair saved their relationship hidden from the general public till November 1993 — at which level they’d already been engaged for a couple of year. The “My Heart Will Go On” singer later printed that her mom, Thérèse Dion, first of all didn’t approve of her romance with Angélil, who was 26 years her senior.

“It was very tricky for her,” the pop icon advised Access Hollywood in 2013. “When I informed her I had some actually sturdy emotions for René, she attempted the entirety to … make me snap out of it. I used to be very annoyed and mad at first, however she attempted to make me remember the fact that this man tried marriage two times sooner than, he has three children, he’s now not accountable.”

Eventually, Thérèse — who died in 2020 at age 92 — came over. “My whole circle of relatives used to be in love, with him and she had no choice,” Celine recalled.

Celine and Angélil tied the knot in 1994, later welcoming son René-Charles in 2001 and twins Eddy and Nelson in 2010. Angélil persevered managing his spouse’s career till 2014 when he retired following his analysis with throat cancer.

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The ability supervisor died at age 73 in January 2016, two days before his birthday. “He will likely be remembered as a gentle man, beneficiant and kind, an unparalleled visionary, a modern Pygmalion, a renaissance guy,” Celine wrote of her husband in a statement shared via social media at the time. “All who had the privilege of realizing him and of running closely with him, whether or not for my part or professionally, salute a leader and a person of serious intelligence and wisdom.”

Keep scrolling for Celine and Angélil’s complete relationship timeline:

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