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Celine Dion is opening up about her battle with Stiff-Person Syndrome. Back in December 2022, the 56-year-old “All By Myself” singer revealed that she was diagnosed with the rare and incurable neurological disorder that causes muscle stiffness and painful spasms, double vision and impaired mobility. In her first televised interview that aired on NBC on Tuesday night (June 11), Celine revealed that during the decade of testing it took for doctors to correctly diagnose her, she became highly dependent on the relief provided by increasingly near-lethal amounts of Valium. Keep reading to find out more…“I did not know, honestly, that it could kill me. I would take, for example before a performance, 20 milligrams of Valium, and then just walking from my dressing room to backstage — it was gone,” Celine said as she described how quickly the pain relief would go away. “At one point, the thing is, that my body got used to it at 20 and 30 and 40… It was relaxing my whole body,” Celine explained. “For two weeks, for a month, the show would go on…but then you get used to [and] it doesn’t work anymore.” Celine at point was taking 90 milligrams daily of Valium to help ease the muscle spasms. In 2008, Celine said that the disorder became very obvious to her and her team while on her Taking Chances World Tour right before a concert in Germany. “I said to my assistants and to my people, ‘I don’t know if I can do the show. I don’t know what’s happening,’” Celine recalled, mimicking her voice at the time. “I was very, very, very scared. And then you panic, and the more you panic, the more you spasm. I went onstage … of course. And I started to sound more nasal.” Celine said that a decision was made that this vocal defect would be “compensated” for “lower[ing] the songs a little bit with the keys and project[ing] more nasal — and hope.” Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Celine said that she was finally able to take some off from work to figure out what was going on with her health and to curb her dependency on Valium. “It was an opportunity for me to take a break,” Celine said. “Do not be brave. And to be smart…I stopped everything with the help of doctors. I was weaning off all the meds, and especially the bad ones. I stopped everything because it stopped working.” Even though she wasn’t working any more, Celine said that her symptoms persisted and her doctors still struggled to find out what was wrong with her. “It’s very complex. I wanted to — from head to toe — figure it out,” Celine explained. “And I wanted to also figure out: ‘Is there something that I can do for myself or am I at the end of my career?’” Now that she has finally been diagnosed with Stiff-Person Syndrome, Celine said that she is determined to return to the stage and perform an incredible show for fans. “I’m gonna go back on stage, even if I have to crawl, even if I have to. I will,” Celine said. “I am Celine Dion, because today, my voice will be heard for the first time, not just because I have to or because I need to, it’s because I want to.” Also in the interview, Celine detailed what singing with Stiff-Person Syndrome feels like.
