Celine Dion And Rene Angelil Through The Years

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2/15 At just 12-years-old Celine met Rene for the first time, when the well-known music manager invited her to audition in Quebec, in 1980. In 1981, Rene mortgaged his house to finance her album and took the teen and her mother on tour in Canada, Japan, and Europe.
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3/15 At the age of 19, Celine and Rene went on their first official date in 1987 (she later admitted that they started seeing each other about a year before that). She didn't announce their relationship for five years as she was afraid of what people would think of their 26-year age gap. Celine Dion and Rene Angelil pictured in Los Angeles in 1990.
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4/15 The couple got engaged in 1991, even though their relationship was still a secret to the world. Celine's mother also did not immediately approve of their romance. Eventually, they married (pictured) in a lavish ceremony at Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica on December 17, 1994, which was broadcast live on Canadian television.
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5/15 Celine Dion and husband Rene Angelil at the World Music Awards in Monte Carlo on May 03, 1995, where she won an award.
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6/15 Celine and Rene at the Oscars in 1997, when one of her biggest hits — "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic — won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
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7/15 The couple pictured in 1998, when Rene was diagnosed with throat cancer. Despite her busy career, Celine chose to step back and take a hiatus to focus on and care for her husband.
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8/15 In 2000, René was declared cancer-free. To celebrate the couple renewed their wedding vows in a traditional Melkite Byzantine ceremony in Las Vegas, five years after their wedding in Montreal.
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9/15 Celine gave birth to the couple's first child, Rene-Charles, on January 25, after years of difficult fertility treatments. The couple baptized Rene-Charles on July 25, 2001 (pictured) at the chapel of the Notre-Dame Basilica in old Montreal, the same place where they married years earlier.
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10/15 In 2002 Celine resume performing, with a healthy husband by her side. She released album 'A New Day Has Come' and announced her residency at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. On January 26, 2003, she kicked off the Super Bowl (pictured) at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, with "God Bless America."
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11/15 After more than four years, 717 performances and nearly three million tickets sold at her Caesars Palace residency Celine performed her final show on December 15, 2007, with Rene and their son Rene-Charles by her side (pictured).
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12/15 On October 23, after multiple rounds of IVF, the couple happily welcomed fraternal twin boys: Nelson, named after South African President Nelson Mandela, and Eddy, named after French songwriter Edd Marnay.
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13/15 In 2013 the couple were devastated yet again when Rene's cancer returned. Rene and Celine gave an interview about the diagnosis to Katie Couric in April 2013 (pictured). In December Rene underwent surgery to remove a tumor. The next year, the singer put her career on hold again to care for her husband.
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14/15 In August 2015, Celine returned to performing in Las Vegas, at the request of Rene who was still battling cancer.
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15/15 On January 14, 2016, Céline Dion said her final goodbye to her husband. "René Angélil passed away this morning as his home in Las Vegas after a long and courageous battle against cancer," their rep said in a statement.
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It's extremely rare in the entertainment world to see a couple so devoted to each other. But Celine Dion and Rene Angélil have proved that everlasting love is possible. They met when she was only 12 and he was 38. And after years of building her career together the pair fell in love. We take a look back at the highs and lows of their beautiful romance.

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