Celine Dion left the spotlight after she was diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome. The legendary singer paused her career, and time will tell whether she will ever return to the stage. Now, Dion has broken her silence and shared a Thanksgiving message for fans.
Celine Dion is one of the most prominent singers in history. The Canadian-born singer has performed since her teenage years and has held two Las Vegas residencies. However, in 2022, her career took an awful turn as she was diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome.
It’s a rare and incurable neurological disease that can cause debilitating muscle spasms. The setback left Dion unable to perform the way she wanted.
“It’s like somebody is strangling you. It’s like somebody is pushing your larynx/pharynx,” Celine Dion told NBC last year. “It was like talking like that, and you cannot go high or lower.”
“It gets into a spasm, it started [in the throat]. [And I thought], ‘No, OK, it’s gonna be fine.’ But it can also be the abdominal, can be in the spine, can be in the ribs.”
Dion continued, “Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life,” she said. “Sometimes it causes difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I’m used to.”
Dion and her family went through a horrific tragedy in 2016 as they lost their husband and father, René Angélil, to throat cancer. The couple shares a son, René-Charles, and twin boys, Nelson and Eddy.
