“I scared myself”: Céline Dion opens her heart about her illness in TF1’s 8 p.m.

This is an exceptional interview conducted from Las Vegas, in the United States, by Anne-Claire Coudray. Illness, voice, documentary, return to the stage… Céline Dion opens up as she rarely does in this interview, broadcast Sunday evening on TF1’s 8 p.m. program and can be seen in full in the video above.

In his documentary I am: Celine Dion, available on June 25 on the Amazon platform, Prime Video, the 56-year-old Canadian singer recounts her fight against “Stiff-person syndrome”, the syndrome of the stiff man or the stiff person in French. Celine Dion first revealed in December 2022 that she had been diagnosed with this autoimmune disease. With TF1, the star gives reassuring news about his state of health: “I’m doing well“, she confides.

“It’s a disease that I will live with for the rest of my life,” indicates Céline Dion, affected by this rare neurological syndrome since “almost 17 years old”. Symptoms ? A body and a voice that “stiffen up”. “Everything stops working, it can last a few minutes but it can also last hours,” she declares. The singer’s immune system “is not strong enough to fight and defend himself”, she relates. Sometimes, Celine Dion “loses consciousness”.

“I scared myself”

“It wasn’t just pain, it was spasms. It’s like someone puts a hand on your voice and suddenly there’s nothing wrong with it.” illustrates the singer. Initially, these symptoms occur “in the middle of a concert”, without her being able to put a name to the illness from which she suffers. “When I couldn’t sing, I had spasms in my throat, I canceled a lot of shows“, relates Céline Dion to Anne-Claire Coudray. The singer then finds herself “to lie” to his fans about the diagnosis.

She also starts taking medication. If, at the beginning, these medications are mild, subsequently, in order to alleviate her pain, the singer switches to stronger medications, “very dangerous”, like Valium. “At the beginning, it helped me a little but, very quickly, the doses had to increase,” indicates the Quebecer. “I scared myself because it no longer worked”reveals the singer to TF1.

• Read also

  VIDEO – “I am a prisoner”: discover excerpts from the documentary on Céline Dion facing her illness

“When a person is at a very dangerous level of medication and it no longer works, we then have two choices: either continue or stop breathing”, she confides. Celine Dion is going through a particularly difficult period, after the deaths of her husband, her brother and her mother. “I saw my whole life disappear at that moment”, she reveals. If the singer, mother of three boys, holds on despite the illness and losses of those close to her, it is also thanks to her children. “I have a big responsibility, beyond being a singer,” she declares.

“The disease has taken control”

In her poignant documentary, Céline Dion confides “open book”as she is used to, evoking as well “his sorrows” that “his joys”. “I’ve always told everything and I can’t change, I’m made like that,” she explains to Anne-Claire Coudray. “I had no choice but to leave the stage because my vocal cords have always led the way”declares the singer. “I had no choice, the disease took control of my vocal cords and my entire body, from head to toe”she says. “I said to myself: I don’t want my children to be afraid. I can’t take this pain of lies anymore”also confides the native of Charlemagne, a small town in Quebec.

This illness caused changes in his voice. “I don’t refuse” this new voice, specifies the singer, constrained “to hear a voice that is not one’s own.” “It’s a voice that needs rehabilitation, it’s coming slowly,” she relates.

“Don’t suffer alone”

On TF1, Céline Dion also pays tribute to her fans, who “gave an incredible life” and who “gave an international career”. “Every time I invited them, they were there, they sang with me… I was born to be on stage. I experienced a lot of happiness, I experience what I experience, it’s not okay never leave”, she relates. If she made this documentary, it is also because she wants her audience to know that it is not necessary “live alone with your pain”. “Talk to your neighbors, your friends, your children, your lovers, etc.”urges the international star. “Accept your weaknesses, talk about them and consult, don’t suffer alone.” Celine Dion also left a message of hope to her fans: “I don’t know when, but I’m going to come back on stage.” “I miss you a lot, let me say see you soon”she adds.

• Read also

  VIDEO – “I’m going to come back on stage”: Celine Dion’s message of hope to her French fans, before her interview on TF1’s 8 p.m.

In the documentary which will be released on June 25, Celine Dion often appears without makeup during interviews. “I went so far with this lie, this sinusitis and this sore throat that I told myself that, even in terms of makeup, I wanted to stop and reinvent myself”responds the singer on this subject. “I tell myself that if (Editor’s note: the illness) was going to take me away, then the newspapers should not say that I died while I was still alive”she says. “I deserved to belong to myself for once”, confides the Canadian, moved, that the challenges have made her evolve. “I would like to say that I am perhaps Celine Dion for the first time.”