Céline Dion admits on TF1 to have suffered in silence from her illness for many years

A special news report for Anne-Claire Coudray this Sunday, June 16. And it is not because of the hastily called legislative elections, but thanks to the exceptional interview with the singer Céline Dion.

The TF1 journalist flew to Las Vegas to meet the international star who decided to suspend her career after announcing her illness. The interpreter of For you to love me again suffers from stiff person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that particularly affects her precious vocal cords. “A disease that I will live with for the rest of my life. I can’t do too much physically because if I stimulate the body too much I have a seizure. Everything stops working, it could last a few minutes or a few hours.explains Celine Dion.

I had spasms in the middle of the concert

Celine Dion on TF1

If the artist has walled himself in media silence for almost two years, the first symptoms go back much further. “It’s been several years, almost 17 years. It started in the voice”confides the singer. “I had spasms in the middle of a concert where I was taking medication without really knowing”, she remembers. Celine Dion was forced to cancel several performances, citing sinusitis and sore throat. In private, she tries all kinds of treatments from inhalations to medication “very dangerous”without having a diagnosis.

“I found myself lying”she regrets to Anne-Claire Coudray. “It’s difficult because people can judge us. When you live with these things for a very long time, you say to yourself “the show must go on, I have to do the show, I have to be brave”. We put so much weight on ourselves that we’ll die and it’s not worth it when you’re a mother.”she adds.

She wants to restore the truth

Today, Celine Dion no longer wants to hide. “I have been an open book all my life, both my sorrows and my joys. I had no choice but to leave the stage. The disease took control of my vocal cords and my whole body, but I told myself, I don’t want my children to be afraid and I don’t want to bear all this pain of lying anymore.explains the singer.

“I want to stop reinventing myself. That’s enough. If it’s something that’s going to take me away, the newspapers shouldn’t say that I’m dead while I’m still alive. I deserve to belong to myself for once”she continues before ensuring that she will “get back on stage”. “I don’t know when, it’s happening slowly”she adds, speaking directly to TF1 viewers.

A nice coup for TF1 which thus lands the first French television for the interpreter of the soundtrack of Titanic since the announcement of the diagnosis. Celine Dion gave her first exclusive interview to journalist Hoda Kotb of the American channel NBC on June 11 to promote her documentary I am: Celine Dion broadcast on Prime Video.

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