Do You Remember: When Celine Dion Married the Man Who Had Been Managing Her Since She Was 12

I have a great soft spot for Celine Dion. Her music does nothing for me, although I greatly respect her vocal talents, and in the past decade or so she’s evolved into a stylish public figure whose candour and goofiness have made even the most ardent haters reassess her. In recent years, she’s retreated to private life after a diagnosis of Stiff Person Syndrome. An Amazon documentary offered a brutal insight into life with a degenerative condition, a vulnerable reveal that was often tough to stomach. But as her performance at last year’s Olympics opening ceremony reminded us, this woman is beloved.

As often happens with former child stars, there’s a protective air to Celine’s fandom. She’s been famous for way longer than she hasn’t, and she seems to be that rare creature of someone who is actually good at and comfortable with being a celebrity. She’s a diva crossed with your kooky aunt who knows how to put on a show, the ultimate rags-to-riches tale whose propulsive ambition took her to the top. We want good things for Celine. There’s also the elephant in the room of why we’re so keen to look out for Dion: her late husband.

(Image via Georges Biard // Wikimedia Commons.)

We know the origins of Celine’s fame. The youngest child of 14, she was raised in a poor but loving home in Charlemagne, Quebec. She slept in a drawer as a baby, then shared a bed with several of her sisters. As a child, she was mocked for her "vampire teeth" and skinny frame, and preferred to skip school to sing in the basement with her siblings. At the age of 12, her mother and her brother Jacques wrote and composed a song for her, titled "Ce n'était qu'un rêve" (meaning "It Was Only a Dream." Her brother Michel found the name of a music manager on the back of a Ginette Reno album and sent the tape to him. Eventually, they convinced this manager and producer that this pre-teen with the big voice was going to be a star.