Celine Dion says her stardom has given her the relentless determination to “never want to give up on anything”.
The 55-year-old My Heart Will Go On singer – who has no idea when she will be able to return to performing live after her Stiff Person Syndrome forced her off stage following her 2022 diagnosis of the ultra-rare condition – has now insisted she has an irrepressible ambition to do what she was “born” for despite her illness.
She told the latest issue of Vogue France when asked what being a celebrity has “brought” and “taken away from” her: “Celebrity has made me want to never give up on anything. I was born to communicate on stage, with my team, and with my voice, and with my fans.
“It’s about sharing. I was born to do that. When I found myself on stage for the first time, in Quebec, I caught the bug!
“What has fame taken away from me? Nothing? Because I live every day, and I move forward.”
The singer – whose music producer husband René Angélil died from throat cancer aged 73 in 2016 after they were married for 22 years – gets daily treatments for her SPS, a progressive neurological disorder that can cause frozen muscles in the torso, arms and legs, and affects about one in a million people.
Dion, who has three sons, René-Charles, 23, and 13-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy, with Angélil, stressed she still feels blessed despite her health woes.
She added: “I am honoured to be doing a photo shoot for Vogue France because although I had better health and beauty at 30, I didn’t get asked to do one then.
“I am very proud that at 55, I am being asked to reveal my beauty.
“But what is beauty? Beauty is you, it’s me, it’s what’s on the inside, it’s our dreams, it’s today. Beauty is what surrounds us, it is there.
“There are people that see it, and there are people that observe it. Today, I am a woman, who feels strong and positive about the future.”