The mum-of-three admitted that due to the fatal nature of her partner’s illness, the couple have discussed their greatest fears and wishes for the future.
“I’ll say, ‘You’re scared? I understand. Talk to me about it,'” Celine confided. “And René says to me, ‘I want to die in your arms.’ OK, fine, I’ll be there, you’ll die in my arms.”
The iconic singer stayed true to her wedding vows from 1994 and is sticking by her husband in sickness and health.
Céline opted to go on a yearlong hiatus as the love of her life battled throat cancer.
“I didn’t want to be here at first, I don’t need it. Don’t get me wrong, I love singing for people, but I have priorities,” Céline told USA Today of her return to Las Vegas.
“But René really gave me a gift. All my grieving, it was during this last year. I think I’ve got this. For now. When it hits me, it’s going to hit me.”
The 47-year-old explained that she can’t help but be strong.
“You can have your shaking knees at the end, but when someone you love falls and needs help, it’s not time to cry. Afterwards, sure. But not yet,” she said defiantly.
The multi-award-winning singer put her career on hold to focus on her husband.
Despite the amazing strength and support she provides for her family, sometimes all her husband “needs is something more sensitive than that, more than just positivity. Sometimes he just wants me to enter into a different place with him.”
“But my biggest job is to tell my husband, we’re fine. I’ll take care of our kids. You’ll watch us from another spot,” she added about the heart-breaking issue.
Céline’s husband-of-21 years has faced multiple health battles over the years, including a heart attack in 1992 and surgery on his neck in 1998 for a malignant lump. In 2013, he was diagnosed with throat cancer.
“We have asked (doctors) many times, how long does he have, three weeks, three months? René wants to know. But they say they don’t know,” the mother-of-three explained.
Céline and René are the proud parents to four-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy and 14-year-old René-Charles.
The My Heart Will Go On singer admitted the twins are too young to really understand, explaining they “don’t know their father in any other state”.
However it is a different story for her eldest. As he slowly becomes “the man of [her] life,” the proud mum shared that René-Charles has found it very difficult watching his father in poor health.
Céline doesn’t know how much time she has with her love, but she will always be there for the man she calls “the only boyfriend I’ve ever had.”
“When you see someone who is fighting so hard, it has a big impact on you,” she said.
“You have two choices. You look at your husband who’s very sick and you can’t help, and it kills you. Or you look at your husband that’s sick and you say,
‘I got you. I got it. I’m here. It’s going to be just fine.'”
Céline married René in 1994 and the pair are parents to three beautiful boys.
