Celine Dion is Open to Love Again 9 Years After Husband Rene Angelil's Passing

She was feeling silly. During a Tomorrow’s Golf League match in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, on March 4, Celine Dion spent a few minutes chatting with ESPN’s Marty Smith about her longtime love of the sport as Tiger Woods and other athletes competed. Asked which song from her catalogue best represents her golf game, the French-Canadian music star launched into the chorus of her 1997 Titanic soundtrack hit “My Heart Will Go On,” playfully swapping “heart” for a links reference: “Near, far, wherever you are,” she sang, “I believe that my ball will go on.”

Lyrics aren’t the only thing she’s been changing lately. “Getting out to the golf match and meeting so many people was a wonderful experience,” a source tells Life & Style, describing it as one of many outings Celine’s enjoyed in recent months that have been changing her perspective about her future. Nine years after losing husband and manager René Angélil to throat cancer at 73 — and two years after revealing her own struggle with a devastating health condition — the Queen of Power Ballads, 56, “is ready to find love again. Her heart is open to it,” says the source. “She’s hopeful about meeting that special someone.”

After being widowed in 2016, dating was the last thing on Celine’s mind. Her biggest priority in the wake of René’s death, she told Today, was to “be the best mother possible” to their children, René-Charles, Nelson and Eddy. But RC is now 24; the twins are 14. “Her sons are older and more independent and don’t need her so much. They’re thinking about their own futures,” explains the source, “and they don’t want their mom to be all by herself.”

The boys have given her their blessing to finally move on. “They’re really encouraging Celine to go for it, which of course makes all the difference,” adds the source. “If they didn’t want her to be with someone new, she’d probably feel too guilty to do this, but they are pushing her to take next steps and get on the dating scene. While she hasn’t met anyone yet, the fact that she’s even talking about wanting to is huge.” No one could ever replace René, added the source, “but Celine knows he would not want her to spend the remainder of her life alone and lonely.”

She’s faced other obstacles, too. In late 2022, after quietly “dealing with problems with my health for a long time,” she revealed on social media, Celine announced she’d received a heartbreaking diagnosis in August of that year: stiff-person syndrome (SPS), a rare autoimmune neurological condition that causes debilitating muscle spasms, pain and rigidity. It affected the five-time Grammy winner’s vocal cords, forcing her to stop touring. But thanks to careful treatment, she’s learned to cope with the incurable disease’s ups and downs and “is doing so much better than she was a year or two ago,” says the source, acknowledging that while Celine “still has her bad days, she can live with SPS — but she would rather not do it solo.”

The “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now ” singer was just 12 when she started working with René, who was 26 years her senior, in 1980. Their relationship became romantic after she turned 19; they wed in 1994. Just four years later, his long cancer battle began. “I love him. I’m still in love with him,” Celine confessed to CBS News months after losing “the only man that I [ever] kissed” and “the only boyfriend” she’d ever had.

When asked if she hoped to fall in love again, she shook her head: “Not now.” She reiterated that sentiment in the years that followed. “I’m not ready to date,” the “Power of Love” performer went on to tell Today in 2019, though she also confessed she longed for intimacy. “I’m so lucky to have so many people surround me who make me laugh,” she explained, “but I miss to be touched. I miss to be hugged. I missed to be told I’m beautiful. I miss what a boyfriend and what a husband would do.”

In 2021, Celine still wasn’t there yet. “I’m not thinking about a relationship and falling in love again,” she insisted, further telling Today, “right this second, love is so big right now in my life, with my kids, with life itself.”

Now, friends are hoping she’ll find romance amid her comeback. Celine triumphantly sang again — marking her first public performance in four years — at the Eiffel Tower during the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony.

Last fall, the fashion lover also sang two songs and walked the runway at designer Elie Saab’s show in Saudi Arabia. Rumors have since been swirling that Celine has both English and French language albums in the works and is planning a new Las Vegas residency.

She’s not just surviving but thriving. “She’s so positive and looking forward to the future,” says the source. “There were many days when she was at her sickest that she wondered if she would ever be able to live a normal life again, so this really does feel like a second chance — and Celine doesn’t want to waste it. She feels the best is yet to come. And if she finds someone to share that with, all the better.”