Celine Dion is opening up about how her three sons are dealing with her nearly two decades long health battle.
While talking with Today’s Hoda Kotb, Dion revealed that because her stiff person syndrome can lead to intense flare ups at any time, she needed to learn how to be honest with her children.
Dion’s youngest boys are now 13-years-old and have learned what to do when their mom falls ill.
Dion recalled a conversation she was forced to have with her sons after their father, Dion’s longtime husband René Angélil passed away.
“Don’t be scared if I can’t talk. Mom’s not dying. Mom cannot use her vocal cords. If I (cannot) respond to you, it’s possible that I hear you, but I cannot communicate,” Dion says she’s told them. “They know what to do: Call 9-1-1.”
In fact, as People reports, they do crisis drills every few months to make sure her twins are well prepared for any situation. “We have panic buttons in the house and they know how to put me on my side,” Dion revealed.
“The idea of telling them and showing them, it was not to frighten them. It is for them to know, ‘I’m your mom and it’s my responsibility. You’re old enough to understand I might need your help.’ They’re so amazing because I would say 15 minutes or so every night, they come and they say, ‘Mom,’ and I say, ‘Yes?’
“[They say], ‘It’s just because it’s been a little longer than you usually take when you clean up at night before bedtime. We just want to make sure you’re fine,’” Dion said of her sons’ check-ins. “This is our lives now: We care for each other, and they’re so helpful.”
As Dion admitted, despite only getting honest with the public and her fans last year, the singer has dealt with her failing health since her husband was enduring his own battle.
“I [coped] with losing my mom and losing my dad and losing one of my brothers and losing the father of my kids — my husband, my manager — at the same time,” Dion told People. “I did not want my kids to be scared.”
At first, Dion didn’t know how honest she wanted to be with her children. “[They] will have something to eat tonight and tomorrow, but what if I don’t know what’s going on with me, and what if I die? What if I don’t wake up? They already lost their dad. What are they thinking? Are they scared to ask me? Should I bring it up?”
Dion, who is adamant that the disease hasn’t taken anything from her, admitted it changed the way she talked to her kids.
“It got me knowledge. It gave me a responsibility,” she told Kotb. “As a mother, first of all, talk to your kids. Let them know that you will not die. ‘Yes, Dad is in Heaven and he’s fine … Mom is going to be OK.’”
And she was even more confident in that when she got her diagnosis. “I let them know, okay, you lost your dad, [but] mom has a condition, and it’s different. I’m not going to die. It’s not something that’s going to go away, [but] it’s something that I’m going to learn to live with.”
Dion also opened up about not being able to be honest with her fans at the time she started canceling shows because she didn’t know what to tell them.
“I should have stopped; take the time to figure it out,” Dion admitted when talking about taking the time to figure out what was wrong with her.
“Take the time as well, like it’s not enough, my husband, as well, was fighting for his own life. I had to raise my kids. I had to hide. I had to try to be a hero while feeling my body leaving me. Holding on to my own dreams.”
But lying to her fans, Dion says, the “burden” had become “too much.”
“Lying to the people who got me to where I am today. I could not do it anymore,” Dion explained.
Dion revealed that she still has plans to get back on stage, even if she means she has to crawl to the microphone. “I am Celine Dion because today my voice will be heard for the first time, not just because I have to or because I need to, but it’s because I want to. And I miss it.”
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