11th June, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
Canadian singer Celine Dion has shared that she hid her struggle with Stiff Person Syndrome for 17 years before revealing it to the public.
Stiff Person Syndrome, SPS is an incurable neurological disease that turns sufferers into human statues, work can be done to slow the progression. The disease causes muscles to stiff uncontrollably.
In an interview with Hoda Kotb on the Today Show this week, Dion revealed that she was secretly battling the illness while managing her late husband, Rene Angelil’s cancer battle and raising their children.
The 56-year-old singer who first revealed her diagnosis in 2022, confessed that she has been experiencing symptoms way back in 2008.
“We did not know what was going on [with me]. I did not take the time… I should have stopped, took the time to figure it out,” she said.
“And like it wasn’t enough, my husband as well is fighting for his own life.
“I had to raise my kids, I had to hide, I had to try to be a hero – while feeling my body leaving me,’ she continued. ‘[I was] holding on to my own dreams.”
The ‘Think Twice’ crooner explained that she eventually opened up about her illness because keeping it from “the people who got her to where she was” was a huge “burden”.
Celine Dion recently stated that her Stiff Person Syndrome feels like she’s “being strangled”.
She added that that she often suffers from cramps and even had broken some ribs.
Celine Dion first hinted at her health woes in January when she cancelled the North American dates of her Courage world tour from March 9 to April 22, 2022.
The announcement came three months after she had to cancel the start of her Las Vegas comeback residency over the same health issue.
Celine has become known as ‘Queen Of Las Vegas’ because of her enormously successful residencies there.
After retiring her famous Caesars Palace residency in 2019, she was coaxed back to Sin City to perform at the new Resorts World on the Strip.