Rene Angelil’s funeral to be held on January 22 in Montreal

Rene, who acted as a mentor and manager to Celine, had been battling throat cancer since 2013 but lost the fight on Thursday morning, mirror.co.uk reported. Angelil additionally had three grown children from two other marriages.

Way before being known as the husband of Celine Dion, Rene Angelil was once a singer himself. “My mother wanted to kill him”, she said later.

Their sister Claudette recently told The Journal of Montreal that Daniel was battling cancer of the throat, tongue and brain.

A public memorial will also be held February 3 at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where Dion has her concert residency.

Mr Angelil was born in Montreal in 1942.

Dion’s rep confirmed Friday that her brother is indeed losing his battle with the disease, and has only a matter of hours or days at the most to live.

In 1999, her song My Heart Will Go On, from the soundtrack of the film Titanic, won two Grammy awards.

The “Power of Love” singer announced in August 2014 that she was going to take an indefinite leave from her career due to her husband’s health condition.

Eventually, the couple landed in Las Vegas where Dion played almost 1,000 shows. She said it was the third time he had been diagnosed with cancer. “And René says to me, ‘I want to die in your arms.’ OK, fine, I’ll be there, you’ll die in my arms”. In the hours after his death, Dion canceled her performances at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on January 16 and January 17.