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How Celine Dion Used 'Up' To Explain Her Husband's Death To Their Kids

So, so sad.
Canadian singer Celine Dion speaks during a news conference before her concert at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada August 27, 2015. REUTERS/David Becker
David Becker / Reuters
Canadian singer Celine Dion speaks during a news conference before her concert at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada August 27, 2015. REUTERS/David Becker

Just before Celine Dion's husband, René Angélil, died, the singer said that she told her husband not to worry about anything in the final moments they shared.

"You were worrying for my career. You were worrying for the children," Dion recalled saying to him in an interview with ABC News' Deborah Roberts. "You were worrying for everything. It's enough. Do you trust me? Please do. Trust me."

The singer said that she also told Angélil, "The kids are fine. I'm fine. I promise you, we're gonna be OK. Please leave in peace. I don't want you to worry."

Angélil died at 73 after a long battle with throat cancer on January 14, leaving behind Dion, three children from previous marriages, and the couple's three kids, René-Charles, 15, and twins Eddy and Nelson, 5. Dion told Roberts that she used the Disney movie "Up" to help explain their father's death.

"Before I told them that their dad was not there, I talked about when we, everybody, gets sick. Then I said, 'Do you remember the movie "Up"?'" the singer said.

"It's one of our favorite," Dion recalled. "'Oh,' they said. 'Yes, Ellie went up. You know, she, with the balloons.' And I said, 'Well, yeah ... You know, today Papa went up.'"

In 2015, Dion told "Good Morning America" that her husband's cancer left him unable to talk or swallow and that she had to feed him three times a day with a feeding tube. A few months prior to his death, the singer revealed she and her husband had already discussed his funeral and what would happen when he died.

"I'll say, 'You're scared? I understand. Talk to me about it,'" Dion said in an interview with USA Today. "And René says to me, 'I want to die in your arms.' OK, fine, I’ll be there, you’ll die in my arms."

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