Celine Dion’s Husband, René Angélil, Dies Of Throat Cancer At 73

René Angélil, husband of Celine Dion, died from throat cancer at 73.

“Rene Angelil, 73, passed away this morning at his home in Las Vegas after a long and courageous battle against cancer,” the rep said in a statement. “The family requests that their privacy be respected at the moment.”

The two met when Angelil was Dion’s mentor and manager at the beginning of her career. He is survived by the couple’s three children – René-Charles, 14, and 5-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy – as well as Anne-Marie, Patrick and Jean-Pierre, his adult children from previous marriages.

“Mr. Angelil, 73, died of throat cancer at his home in Henderson while under the care of a physician,” the Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner said in a statement to People.

In 1980, after stopping his own musical career, Angélil began work as a music manager. He discovered Dion, then 12, after she submitted a demo tape of a song she had written with her mother. He signed her shortly afterwards, mortgaging his home to pay for her debut album La Voix Du Bon Dieu.

The music manager battled three bouts of throat cancer before having a tumor removed in 2014. Her husband’s health has lead Dion to put her career on hold to be there for her family.

“We have asked [doctors] many times, how long does he have, three weeks, three months? René wants to know,” Dion said in a candid interview with USA Today in August. “But they say they don’t know.”

Before her husband died, she promised to fulfill his dying wish. “I’ll say, ‘You’re scared? I understand. Talk to me about it’ … And René says to me, ‘I want to die in your arms.’ Okay, fine, I’ll be there, you’ll die in my arms.”

The singer vowed to stay strong in that hour. “You can have your shaking knees at the end, but when someone you love falls and needs help, it’s not time to cry,” she said. “Afterwards, sure. But not yet.”