Céline Dion says husband René Angélil talks of dying, final wish
Singer set to resume Las Vegas show as Angélil battles throat cancer
Singer Céline Dion, set to return to performing this week, has acknowledged that she and her husband René Angélil have talked frankly about his long battle with throat cancer and his last wish.
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"René says to me, 'I want to die in your arms.' OK ... I'll be there, you'll die in my arms," she told USA Today in an interview Sunday.
The singer, 47, said she has spent the last year — on hiatus from her Las Vegas show — grieving for Angélil and that they have filled the past months with many emotional conversations.
The paper said Dion dabbed her eyes as she talked about her first show, scheduled Thursday at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, and how "it will be fragile," but also how her partner of many years "wants me to do this, do the show, do the interviews.
"There will be moments of emptiness, laughter, awkwardness, tearing up," she said of her return to the stage, announced last March.
The singer said she and her husband — "the only boyfriend I've ever had" and "the leader of the band all my life" — have asked doctors how long he has to live, but they don't know.
The couple have a 14-year-old son, as well as four-year-old twin boys, who she says have never known their father "in any other state."
Angélil, 73, is being cared for at the home they share in Las Vegas. He was diagnosed with throat cancer for a second time in 2013.