Celine Dion enjoyed a rare public appearance with her three sons as they attended a hockey game in Las Vegas.
The “My Heart Will Go On” singer, 55, watched the Vegas Golden Knights defeat the team from her hometown, the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 on Monday, October 30.
It was one of the few times Dion has been seen in public since revealing in December 2022 that she is battling stiff-person syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can cause muscle spasms, according to John Hopkins Medicine.
At the game, the Canadian singer was joined by her three sons: René-Charles, 22, and 13-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy. (Their father, René Angélil, passed away in January 2016 from throat cancer at age 73. Angelil, who also managed Dion, married the famed vocalist in December 1994 in Montreal. They renewed their wedding vows in January 2000 in Vegas.)
At Monday’s game, the five-time Grammy winner and her children visited the Canadiens locker room, where coach Martin St. Louis reminisced about witnessing Dion sing for a world leader in Montreal when she was a teenager.
“I remember you were 14 years old when you sang for the Pope,” he said Wednesday video posted on the Canadiens’ official Instagram account. “I was there at Olympic Stadium.”
That was a landmark performance early in Dion’s career as she performed for Pope John Paul II and over 60,000 people on September 11, 1984.
Dion, for her part, was in high spirits as she spoke to players and gave them a pep talk, saying, “Just stay healthy, strong … Do what you do best.”
Dion was planning to resume her Courage World Tour this year after it was halted in 2020 due to the pandemic. However, in May, she was forced to cancel the remaining dates to focus on her health.
“I’m so sorry to disappoint all of you once again,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “I’m working really hard to build back my strength, but touring can be very difficult even when you’re 100%.”
She continued, “It’s not fair to you to keep postponing the shows, and even though it breaks my heart, it’s best that we cancel everything now until I’m really ready to be back on stage again. “I want you all to know, I’m not giving up and I can’t wait to see you again!”
Dion first opened up about coping with her illness in December 2022, revealing she’d been struggling with her health for a “long time.”
“It’s been really difficult for me to face these challenges and to talk about everything that I’ve been going through,” she told fans via Instagram, adding, “Unfortunately, the spasms affect every aspect of my daily life. “Sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I’m used to.”
Despite her health challenges, Dion wrote she is optimistic about her future.
“I have hope that I am on the road to recovery,” she wrote.
