‘I Was Going Down, Down, Down’ (Exclusive)

In PEOPLE’s newest cowl story, the famous person opens up about her struggle to carry out once more, staying robust for her sons and galvanizing others with a brand new documentary

felt the partitions closing in.

As she headed to a pre-show fan meet and greet, “out of the blue I began to really feel the hall getting narrower and narrower,” she recollects completely to PEOPLE in its newest cowl story of the terrifying expertise that occurred throughout her second Caesars Palace live performance residency, which drew greater than two million followers throughout its eight-year-run from 2011-2019. “I’m holding onto the wall, and I’m like, ‘What is going on?’”

The famous person sat for a second, assumed she had a drop in blood sugar and downed an orange juice. Then, as she has achieved all her life, insisted the present should go on.

“I stated, ‘The folks have been ready!’” remembers Dion, who lifts the veil on the previous few years of her life — throughout which amid her — in a revealing (streaming globally June 25 on Prime Video).

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However what felt to the singer like 10 minutes truly had been two hours: “They stated, ‘Céline, the present has been canceled. Individuals are gone.’”

The “gap” in her reminiscence, as Dion, 56, described to PEOPLE over a Zoom name in early June from her house in Las Vegas, was simply one among many mysterious and more and more regarding signs she started privately grappling with within the mid 2000s.

As she recorded a number of albums and carried out back-to-back sold-out excursions and residencies, the five-time Grammy winner did every part she might to energy by means of muscle spasms in her throat and toes, problem respiration and strolling, imaginative and prescient points and, most severely, “disaster” episodes throughout which her physique turned stiff as a board as she endured excruciating ache.

“I used to be happening, down, down. It took my entire life. Nevertheless it’s like if my youngsters are rollerblading, for instance, and one among their ankles is hurting. They don’t need to inform me as a result of I’m going to say, ‘Nicely, take a break from rollerblading,’” she explains of why she held off on digging deeper into her well being struggles. “I didn’t need to cease. I needed to remain onstage. I needed to be courageous as a substitute of good. That was incorrect.”

After delaying a brand new residency in late 2021 and suspending, then , Dion revealed in a tearful December 2022 Instagram video that she had been identified with SPS, a uncommon and progressive autoimmune and neurological dysfunction that may trigger muscle rigidity, mobility points, painful spasms and shortness of breath.

“Whereas folks had been holding on to their tickets, I used to be holding on to my expensive life,” she says.

For extra on Céline Dion’s struggle to get again to the stage following her stiff-person syndrome analysis, how she’s staying robust for her sons and elevating consciousness with a revealing new documentary, choose up the newest situation of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, June 14.

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When Academy Award-nominated director Irene Taylor first signed on to direct as she prepped for a world tour. Taylor discovered of Dion’s August 2022 analysis throughout pre-production, and Dion nonetheless allowed her to let the cameras roll.

“Even when it concerned her struggling, like bodily struggling or emotional anguish, she didn’t ask me to cease filming. She let me know that she trusted me. And I trusted her as a result of I actually might see she was not attempting to cover something from me,” says Taylor, who has made two documentaries about her household’s journey by means of deafness, 2007’s Hear and Now and 2019’s Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Actions.

“I do know the sacredness of household privateness. I do know the sacredness of bodily privateness. And but I actually consider in my coronary heart as an artist that the extra somebody will let me in, I do need to share that,” continues Taylor. “What occurs on this movie is really extraordinary, and it would give folks a brand new perspective on a really unknown illness.”

Provides Dion: “I hope it offers folks power. Lots of people are going by means of issues alone for a lot of, many, a few years.”

After 17 years of pushing apart — and thru — her bodily struggles, Dion was fueled by the love she has for her and her late husband René Angélil’s , to lastly prioritize her well being.

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“, and now I can’t even simply speak with them. I barely might stroll, and I used to be lacking very a lot residing,” she says. “. I used to be like, OK, they already misplaced a father or mother. I don’t need them to be scared.”

Whereas there isn’t presently a remedy, Dion says her analysis introduced reduction to her household. “I allow them to know, ‘You misplaced your dad. Mother has a situation, and it’s totally different. I’m not going to die,’” she recollects of telling her youngsters concerning the sickness, which isn’t deadly and might be managed with remedy. “By understanding what I’m coping with, it takes away numerous weight and burden, and it did the identical for my youngsters.”

Having the illness has been particularly merciless for Dion, who knew since an early age her calling was to carry out and has been beloved for many years for her hovering ballads and inimitable stage presence.

Over the past two years, Dion has been following a mixture remedy plan involving remedy, immune remedy, vocal remedy and intense bodily rehabilitation 5 days per week.

“The great factor that’s on my facet is that I really like doing all this stuff,” she says, grinning. Dion is unwaveringly resilient, however , who serves as director of the autoimmune neurology program on the College of Colorado and is the doctor who identified Dion, emphasizes how strenuous her remedies are. “It’s a full-time job,” Piquet says. “She is extremely decided.”

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Dion is aware of her followers are desirous to see her again onstage, and her. Returning to the in years was “very, very, very difficult,” she says.

“I don’t need to sound pretentious, however [singing] has by no means been tough. I bought scared that it was more durable. I used to be like, that’s not speculated to be exhausting,” she continues.

Nonetheless, she refuses to let worry dictate her future. “I’ve an exquisite coach vocally, and bodily [my treatment plan] is making such a distinction,” she says.

Whereas there’s no timeline for her skilled return, Dion says, “We’re speaking about placing a present collectively, and I’ve so many concepts. I can’t wait.”

She’s additionally discovered new objective — each to boost consciousness about , and to encourage others struggling silently to hunt assist.

“If I’d have simply stayed secretly behind, my house would have grow to be a jail, and I’d have grow to be a prisoner of my very own life,” she says. “At the moment, I dwell someday at a time. The truth that I discovered the power to speak my situation with the world makes me very proud. Perhaps my objective on this life is to assist others, and that’s the best present.”

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