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Nine years already since the man in Céline Dion’s life has bowed out. While he had fought for many months against throat cancer and knew he was doomed, the famous impresario had planned everything. If he had planned his funeral, René Angelil had also resolved all possible inheritance problems, he who had had 6 children.
René Angélil: Nine years already, what legacy did Céline Dion’s husband leave to their children, so young when he died…
“If you don’t continue, it’s like I’ll die twice.”shortly before breathing his last, while at his bedside, addressed this plea to him. He then wished that the one whose career he had shaped from a very young age, the one for whom he had in turn been the mentor, the manager, the lover and the husband, don’t leave the stage to devote yourself to him. He wanted her to continue her shows and return to singing. Words that Élisabeth Reynaud revealed in her biography Celine Dion: Icon and woman of heartpublished by Larousse editions, words, like a last wish.
On August 27, 2015, a year after interrupting his concert series to take care of himself, Céline got her wish and gave his voice back in front of the audience at Caesar Palace in Las Vegas. Five months later, on January 14, 2016, two days before celebrating her 74th birthday, the man to whom she had cried out that evening “I love you René, this concert is for you”located in the suburbs of Las Vegas. It was just nine years ago.
His last months of struggle against his throat cancer had been a long martyrdom : “ he could no longer eat, was blind and deaf and it was Céline who fed him through a tube” revealed Élisabeth Reynaud in Gala in February 2021. Sensing the fateful moment approaching, René Angélil had precisely organized the terms of his farewell.
René Angélil had “planned his funeral for weeks“
“René was a born organizer: he had planned his funeral for weeks”had confided to Paris Match the famous Quebec producer and host Julie Snyder, very close to the couple. The manager had particularly wanted them to be held at the Notre-Dame basilica in Montreal. A wish that will be respected.
On Friday January 22, 2016, dressed in black, and her face covered with a dark tulle veil, Céline, entered the church accompanied by her three children, René-Charles, the eldest of those she had with her husband, and who were then only 6 years old. What would happen to these young children after the death of their father? This too, René Angélil had foreseen.
Feeling his end coming, he had planned everything, wishing undoubtedly anticipate the problems that so many families are experiencingwhen it comes to settling inheritances. Problems which can become inextricable when the children come from different unions, as was the case for René Angélil. Because Céline’s husband did not have three, but six children ! . From their relationship, a first child was born, Patrick, in 1968. Four years later, the couple divorced and, in 1973, René married for a second time the singer Anne Renée with whom he had two other children, Jean-Pierre, born in 1974, and Anne-Marie in 1977. But no one seems to have been forgotten in the will…
Shortly after his death, TMZ was able to consult the legal documents written by Céline’s husband. Documents which made her, along with two other people who are not named, the executrix of a vast estate. Papers which further reveal that her man was generous to his childrenincluding those born from his previous marriages.
Nearly 9 million euros for children
Without much surprise given the love he had for her, it is to Céline that René bequeathed his most intimate personal possessions : cars, clothes, jewelry, furniture and other personal effects went directly to his widow. But his assets consisted mainly of financial assets. They were obtained from the sale of two enormous properties that the impresario owned: one in Florida, whose value was estimated at 45 million dollars, and a castle in Canada, in the province of Quebec, which was worth 25 million dollars . Once the sale of these assets was completed, nearly 9 million euros had to be protected in an account. A sum, currently managed by Céline Dion, which should, according to our American colleagues, later return to the couple’s three children René-Charles, Nelson and Eddy. Although they had made their lives for a long time, René Angélil did not forget his first three children: after his death, two of them were to inherit a house in Canada.
Nine million dollars for children, the amount is enough to make you dream. However, it is tiny compared to their mother’s supposed fortune. According to the magazine ForbesCéline Dion’s personal fortune – – was estimated at 550 million dollars, or approximately 514 million eurosat the end of May 2024. This assessment ranks her fifth among the richest singers in the world, behind , , and . René-Charles and his brothers can sleep soundly. Their future is largely assured and they can!
