Why Celine Dion ‘lied’ about health condition for almost two decades: ‘I had to hide’

Celine Dion reveals why she “lied” to her inner circle about her battle with a rare neurological disorder for nearly two decades.

Celine Dion has admitted she “lied” to her inner circle about her battle with a rare neurological disorder for nearly two decades.

The Canadian singer will candidly discuss her condition on the US Today this week, with a preview of the interview released over the weekend showing Dion getting emotional as she explained why she kept her condition under wraps for 17 years.

In the trailer, Dion said not telling people she was diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome weighed heavily on her, but she did not know what else to do.

Celine Dion says she lied to her inner circle about her diagnosis.

“What did you want me to say? ‘I have…’ what?” the 56-year-old told host Hoda Kotb. “We did not know what was going on.”

The singer began showing symptoms during her Taking Chances World Tour in 2008, during which she experienced stiffness in the body and limbs as well as debilitating muscle spasms. It wasn’t until 2022 that she went public with her health battle.

The singer says the effects of stiff-person syndrome are debilitating.

“I did not take the time. I should have stopped, take the time to figure it out,” she said, recalling that at the time she began showing signs of her disorder, her husband René Angélil was undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

“My husband as well was fighting for his own life,” she said. “I had to raise my kids, I had to hide. I had to try to be a hero, while feeling my body leaving me. [I was] holding on to my own dreams.”

Angélil – the father of her sons René-Charles, 23, and twins Nelson and Eddy, 13 – sadly passed away in 2016.

Dion’s husband and manager Rene Angélil was battling his own health issues at the time, before passing away in 2016. Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Hiding her health issues was Dion’s way of trying process her emotions about her declining health, but it eventually got too much for the singer.

“I could not do this anymore,” she said. “Lying for me, the burden was too much. Lying to the people who got me where I am today, I could not do it anymore.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the Grammy winner revealed the effect her condition has had on her voice.

“It’s like somebody is strangling you. It’s like somebody is pushing your larynx/pharynx,” she said while demonstrating. “It was like talking like that, and you cannot go high or lower.”

And the neurological disorder doesn’t only affect her vocal chords, even her ability to walk and move are compromised.

Dion, seen here in 2011, with her husband and their children, twins Nelson and Eddy and eldest son René-Charles. Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

“It feels like, if I point my feet, they will stay in [that position],” she said singer. “It’s cramping but it’s like in a position where you cannot unlock them. I have broken ribs at one point because sometimes when its very severe, it can break.”

After sharing the teaser for the interview, Today’s Kotb reflected on her interview with her co-hosts Craig Melvin and Savannah Guthrie.

“She had it for 17 years and she didn’t know what was wrong and she was worried,” Hoda said. “Her voice was gone, her body was failing her, she was tripping and falling, all these things were happening.”

However, while she said Dion “almost died from it”, Kotb noted that the singer appears “on the road” to recovery now.