Celine Dion Reveals She's Broken Ribs From Spasms Amid Stiff-Person Syndrome Battle: 'It's Like Somebody Is Strangling You'
Celine Dion revealed the details of how her Stiff-Person Syndrome battle affects her everyday life.
In a new Today interview with Hoda Kotb, which will air in its entirety on June 11, the famous singer demonstrated the physical impact the heartbreaking disease has on her.
It’s “like somebody’s strangling you,” Dion, who shared her diagnosis in 2022, said.
She then pressed inward on her throat as she explained, “It’s like somebody’s pushing your larynx, pharynx, this way.”
The “My Heart Will Go On” artist — who last performed in 2019 — proceeded to speak in a soft tone, saying, “It’s like you’re talking like that, and you cannot go higher or lower.”
Dion added that the rare neurological disorder gives her muscle spasms that can be “abdominal, can be in the spine, can be in the ribs.”
“It feels like if I point my feet, it will stay in [that position],” Dion told Kotb. “Or, if I cook — because I love to cook — my fingers, my hands will get in position. It’s cramping, but it’s like in a position of like, you cannot unlock them.”
The songstress even confessed that she's “broken ribs at one point. Sometimes, when it’s very severe, it can break some ribs.”
After interviewing the iconic musician, Kotb, 59, discussed Dion's health on the Thursday, May 23, episode of Hoda and Jenna.
“Celine Dion at some point, she is now much better, but at some point she almost died, which is something that she says,” the broadcaster shockingly revealed. “It was a scary time.”
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“She was diagnosed with a terrible disease and at one point she wondered if she was going to make it, whether she was going to live through it,” the mother-of-two added. “A lot of people are wondering what happened. What was wrong."
“We’ve missed her and it was a very emotional interview,” Kotb continued. “We’ll see where she is on her journey of coming back, but I know people are cheering her on.”
Kotb even got to hear the legend sing, despite Dion's hesitation, noting, the mother-of-three still sounded "incredible."
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As OK! previously reported, Dion recently opened up about what she's been going through as of late in her new documentary, I Am: Celine Dion, which premieres on Prime Video on June 25.
“It’s not hard to do a show, you know. It’s hard to cancel a show,” Dion shared referencing having to cut her tour due to her illness. “I’m working hard everyday. But I have to admit, it’s been a struggle. I miss it so much. The people, I miss them. If I can’t run, I’ll walk. If I can’t walk, I’ll crawl. I won’t stop.”