Family, fans and friends joined Celine Dion in honoring René Angélil, whose funeral took place over two days this week in the Montreal basilica where the couple married in 1994.
Angélil died on January 14 of throat cancer. He planned the service, which was live-streamed and broadcast on Canadian television, a testament to Angélil’s stature in Canada.
Before he was Dion’s husband, he was a popular Canadian singer, producer and manager who groomed Dion into the international superstar she is today.
Fans streamed through Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica on Thursday for an open casket public viewing, followed by a memorial Friday that drew a mix of ordinary citizens and Canada’s elite.
Dressed in a black veil, dress, fur coat and stilettos, Dion greeted well-wishers with her oldest son, René-Charles, 14, and 5-year-old twins Nelson and Eddy. Her husband’s family, including his children from a previous marriage, also attended.
Dion is the youngest of 14 children. Two days after her husband died, one of her brothers, Daniel, died of cancer. His service will take place Monday.
