Celine Dion opens up like never before about her Stiff Person Syndrome diagnosis.
Before being diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, it seems like Celine Dion was feeling all by herself.
In a new clip from her sit-down interview with Today's Hoda Kotb, the iconic songstress is candid about hiding her health issues from the public at a time when she did not even know what was happening herself.
"We did not know what was going on," she tells Kotb. "I did not take the time. I should have stopped, take the time to figure it out."
However, as she alludes, her mysterious health struggles were happening at the same time her late husband, René Angélil, was battling throat cancer. He died in January 2016 at 73 years old.
"My husband as well was fighting for his own life," she says. "I had to raise my kids. I had to hide. I had to try to be a hero." She and Angélil shared sons René-Charles, 23, and twins Nelson and Eddy, 13.
Seemingly feeling torn, Dion notes she was also "holding on to my own dreams." She had been performing in her long-running Las Vegas residency in the months leading up to her husband's death, which she previously said she did for him.
But keeping her own health battle out of the spotlight weighed on Dion, 56. "Lying for me... the burden was like too much," she tells Kotb. "Lying to the people who got me where I am today -- I could not do it anymore."
Ultimately, it was in December 2022 that Dion publicly shared her diagnosis with the rare neurological disorder for the first time, telling fans how the condition's muscle spasms impacts her singing and daily life and how she would not be able to go on her European tour.
Dion has more recently emerged back in the spotlight, stepping out onto the 2024 GRAMMYs stage in February to present the award for Album of the Year to Taylor Swift.
She is expected to give fans more of a look inside what she's been enduring with the release of her upcoming Prime Video docuseries, I Am: Celine Dion.
She told Vogue France for its May issue, "Today, I'm a woman who is feeling strong and positive about the future. One day at a time."
Dion's full interview with Kotb for NBC Nightly News airs Tuesday, June 11 at 10 p.m. PT/ET.
I Am: Celine Dion debuts June 25 on Prime Video.
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