Céline Dion Says She Couldn’t Hide Stiff-Person Syndrome: ‘Burden Was Too Much’

Céline Dion, 56, is opening up to “Today’s” Hoda Kotb about her decision to tell the world about her stiff-person syndrome diagnosis.

In a preview for an interview slated to air Tuesday, the singer gets emotional as she tells Hoda about the toll it took trying to keep it private.

“Lying for me was… the burden was too much. Lying to the people who got me where I am today, I could not do it anymore.”

Later in the clip, Hoda explains that Dion had the syndrome for 17 years, but didn’t know what was wrong.

Céline touches on this as well, explaining that for a time she didn’t know what to tell the public, because she didn’t have a label.

Dion said, “What do you want me to say? I have what? We did not know what was going on. I did not take the time. I should have stopped, take the time to figure it out.”

She also spoke about her late husband René Angélil, who died of throat cancer in 2016. They had three sons together, René-Charles, 23, and twins Nelson and Eddy, 13.

Dion told Kotb of not focusing on her health, “My husband, as well, was fighting for his own life. I had to raise my kids. I had to hide, I had to try to be a hero, feeling my body leaving me, holding on to my own dreams.”

In an earlier preview of the interview, the Grammy winner explained what was happening to her voice when she tried to sing, saying, “It's like somebody is strangling you.”

Céline explained that it felt like someone was pushing on her larynx and, “You cannot go high or lower.”

She said, “It gets into a spasm,” pointing to her throat, she added, “It started here.” The singer said that initially she thought, “It is going to be fine.”

Dion later learned, “It can be in the abdominal, can be in the spine, it can be in the ribs… I had broken ribs at one point because sometimes when it is very severe it can break some ribs as well.”

It is impacting other parts of her body as well. The 56-year-old said, “If I point my feet they will stay, or if I cook — I love to cook — my fingers, my hands will get in a position… that you can’t unlock them.”

Previously, Hoda announced the news on “Today,” sharing, “I got to have a rare conversation with Céline Dion, and she has not performed live in years and years… She was diagnosed with a terrible disease, and at one point she wondered if she was going to make, whether she was going to live through it. And she talks about what it has done to her voice and the possibility of a comeback. We’ve missed her, and it was a very emotional interview, and we’ll see where she is in her journey of coming back, and I know people are cheering her on.”

On June 11, fans can watch a preview of the interview on “Today” followed by a primetime special that night at 10 p.m. on NBC.

The special will include new footage from the singer’s upcoming Amazon documentary “I Am: Céline Dion,” which premieres June 25. Watch the trailer below!