Panic buttons, lying to fans, Valium: Céline Dion reveals heartbreaking struggles
Global News
The documentary 'I Am: Céline Dion' details the star's 17 years of panic as she struggled to understand what was happening to her body.
Céline Dion is opening up about her life-altering neurological disorder ahead of the release of her documentary, I Am: Céline Dion.
The film, set to premiere June 25 on Prime Video, details the Quebec pop superstar’s struggle with stiff person syndrome (SPS), a progressive condition that causes muscle rigidity and painful spasms.
The 56-year-old singer revealed her diagnosis in December 2022, saying the rare illness prevented her from performing. All of her tour dates were cancelled in the months that followed.
She’s returned to the spotlight in recent weeks to talk about her efforts to return to the stage. Here’s a look at what’s been shared so far.
Dion told TVA’s Jean-Philippe Dion that a spasm in her throat during her 2008 Taking Chances tour was the beginning of “17 years of panic” as she struggled to understand what was happening to her body and to the voice that made her famous.
As the spasms continued and she lost the ability to reliably hit her notes, Dion said she “tried everything” from steam to asthma treatments to powerful medications. She also learned to adapt her songs by changing the way she sang, even as the stress of wanting to perform made her tense up and exacerbated her symptoms. She said it was only after years of “lying” that she decided to confront her illness.
“I didn’t have a diagnosis, I couldn’t sing any more, I couldn’t walk,” she said in the French-language interview broadcast Sunday. “I was holding on to all the chairs in the house, the counters. It wasn’t living, it wasn’t dying, it’s worse than that. It’s waiting, but for what?”
Dion says she wanted to do a documentary about her health woes partly because false reports of her death circulated on social media a couple of years ago.
