Did Rene Angelil groom Celine Dion?

[comingback]

8 hours ago, queenofvegas said:

They're public figures. It's reasonable for people to talk about their relationship, especially because of the circumstances of how they met and the large age gap.

Exactly. We have the right to ask questions. I don't believe the Eurovision story, but maybe we will never know the full story.

 

 

[emiliejolie]

This topic is a bit weird but I wanted to share my opinion and I will try, as English is to my native language, to be as clear as possible, in order to not be misunderstood.

I think this topic reflects the days we are living today. As things and morality change, it is always very radical at the beginning. And we tend today to see things either black or white.

Back to Céline and René story, and as everyone knows, I am always very septic around the "fairytale version" that  René tried to create ( at mercantile aim), I do believe the official version. 

And this is why :

- The Pygmalion scheme is one of the most common relationship construction. It is obvious that Céline and René were in that pattern. René created Céline, he offered her everything that was possible and far beyond the Dion family would have expected. Admiration is often the starting point of love feelings. I am sure that Céline, as she has always said, felt in love  for René very quickly in a teenage years.

Plus, René could have represented a role model, strong and secure. The opposite of Adhémar who was kind of enduring life more than managing it and was entirely supported / held by Thérèse, who wore panties in this family. Not even speaking about Adhémar's alcohol problems that pushed Thérèse to fight for two in this family.

I do believe that René started to develop other feelings than just professional ones because Celine was becoming the creature he had dreamed of. She sent him back the image of his own success and worth. Ego, my dear Ego !! Once again this is so common.

I am sure that, at the beginning, René did not put exact words on the feelings he had, because when you don't want to see things, even though it is obvious, you can't see.

There is one thing that is sure, René wouldn't have taken the risk, for nothing in this world, to damage his creation (Celine's career), and his successful career as the manager of Céline. ( Remember that Colonel Parker was his model )So even though René would have been crazy in love with Céline, he wouldn't have taken the risk to try something.

- René had a love experience before Céline and, contrary to his fellow Guy Cloutier, did not show any trend for younger women (or teen). This perversion (speaking about children/ teen) does not bloom one day at 55 years old !! It is here a the very beginning of the construction of a personality.

To conclude, and I don't want to appear as a low-qualified therapist 🤣, but if you look at their body language, sensuality and erotism were not a major ingredient of their couple.

I think that the kiss story after Céline won the Eurovision could be real ( after winning Céline felt strong, powerful and so ...  bold, audacious) maybe it has not happened on that exact day, some days before or some days after. But there is no reason not to believe it.

Edited February 20, 2026 at 10:37 AM by emiliejolie

[scarletpimpernel]

11 hours ago, scarletpimpernel said:

Does this pic look like a victim or a boss 😄 I think what  helped them is that when they went public with it at the time of The colour of my love album, because she made it so clear where she stood and what she wanted,  and looked so fierce and certainly not like a weak victim about it especially in the only one road music video, people accepted it and were happy if she was.

In other words I've never looked at the relationship/ age gap as unusual because she seemed quite strong enough to stand up for herself when she needed to and there were so many little signs of it being a normal relationship 

[Alex_Incognito]

They are the most successful singer-manager duo that ever was.  And their love story was endearing.  You could always see and feel the immense respect that they had for each other. Not everything is black and white.

[ryba]

Of course it might look like this to the outside. The odds are against them in that regard. But Celine has a very strong personality. If she was forced to do something she didn't want, she wouldn't do it. I can't imagine her being a victim. She would have gotten out of a situation like this real quick and wouldn't stay. 

Edited February 20, 2026 at 01:55 PM by ryba

[ordinary fan]

4 hours ago, emiliejolie said:

This topic is a bit weird but I wanted to share my opinion and I will try, as English is to my native language, to be as clear as possible, in order to not be misunderstood.

I think this topic reflects the days we are living today. As things and morality change, it is always very radical at the beginning. And we tend today to see things either black or white.

Back to Céline and René story, and as everyone knows, I am always very septic around the "fairytale version" that  René tried to create ( at mercantile aim), I do believe the official version. 

And this is why :

- The Pygmalion scheme is one of the most common relationship construction. It is obvious that Céline and René were in that pattern. René created Céline, he offered her everything that was possible and far beyond the Dion family would have expected. Admiration is often the starting point of love feelings. I am sure that Céline, as she has always said, felt in love  for René very quickly in a teenage years.

Plus, René could have represented a role model, strong and secure. The opposite of Adhémar who was kind of enduring life more than managing it and was entirely supported / held by Thérèse, who wore panties in this family. Not even speaking about Adhémar's alcohol problems that pushed Thérèse to fight for two in this family.

I do believe that René started to develop other feelings than just professional ones because Celine was becoming the creature he had dreamed of. She sent him back the image of his own success and worth. Ego, my dear Ego !! Once again this is so common.

I am sure that, at the beginning, René did not put exact words on the feelings he had, because when you don't want to see things, even though it is obvious, you can't see.

There is one thing that is sure, René wouldn't have taken the risk, for nothing in this world, to damage his creation (Celine's career), and his successful career as the manager of Céline. ( Remember that Colonel Parker was his model )So even though René would have been crazy in love with Céline, he wouldn't have taken the risk to try something.

- René had a love experience before Céline and, contrary to his fellow Guy Cloutier, did not show any trend for younger women (or teen). This perversion (speaking about children/ teen) does not bloom one day at 55 years old !! It is here a the very beginning of the construction of a personality.

To conclude, and I don't want to appear as a low-qualified therapist 🤣, but if you look at their body language, sensuality and erotism were not a major ingredient of their couple.

I think that the kiss story after Céline won the Eurovision could be real ( after winning Céline felt strong, powerful and so ...  bold, audacious) maybe it has not happened on that exact day, some days before or some days after. But there is no reason not to believe it.

These are exactly my thoughts on this. I find it terrible that so many people believe these horrible stories about her and Rene. I know these things happen, I'm not delusional but I never believed Celine really experienced this. Their body language speaking for themselves, their glowing eyes too etc. I'm not a therapist either but for me Celine never came across as brainwashed or as a scared victim. And the point that no one wakes up one morning at 55 and suddenly feels attracted to young teens/girls like a pervert is also important. Rene never showed these tendencies and so on before Celine. And for me it's very obvious that the time when they or he really fell in love was nothing he expected or exclusively wanted or forced. 

[ordinary fan]

So many people believe the crudest rumors immediately without checking about their credibility at all nowadays, goes for politics, history, and for staying on topic: for show business too

[GoldenLeaf]

I always felt that they both wanted fame, success and money. Their relationship seemed more like a partnership than anything else. They were each other's best friends and respected each other immensely as they worked together to reach their goals.

However, if they were intimate when Celine was underage, that's another story. If so, their relationship would be just as disgusting as Mary Kay Letourneau's and Vili Fualaau's.

 

[comingback]

On 2/19/2026 at 10:39 AM, comingback said:

According to the book, in 1985 when they were in Paris she told him that she loves him. But he didn't react. He had a divorce going on.

Celine was heartbroken and Maman Dion was angry with Rene.

In 1985, she released the album C'est Pour Toi, which is clearly about Rene.

She was 17 years old.

That's the official story...

 

When you watch the C'est Pour Toi TV Special from Summer 1985, you clearly see a more confident and mature Celine (she was 17 years old). Did something happen in 1985 (besides the Paris I love you Rene statement)?

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2026 at 05:06 PM by comingback

[celine2199]

1 hour ago, GoldenLeaf said:

I always felt that they both wanted fame, success and money. Their relationship seemed more like a partnership than anything else. They were each other's best friends and respected each other immensely as they worked together to reach their goals.

However, if they were intimate when Celine was underage, that's another story. If so, their relationship would be just as disgusting as Mary Kay Letourneau's and Vili Fualaau's.

 

Every marriage is a partnership, the Creator told Adam that Eve was his partner, his assistant...those who think marriage is all about love and romance are naive to say the least... in a marriage, respect,commitment, responsibility and interests are always more important than love and romance. Love may be the most unreliable thing in a marriage...how many people divorced because they found someone they LOVED MORE than their partners 🤔

Edited February 20, 2026 at 05:51 PM by celine2199

[emiliejolie]

1 hour ago, celine2199 said:

Every marriage is a partnership, the Creator told Adam that Eve was his partner, his assistant...those who think marriage is all about love and romance are naive to say the least... in a marriage, respect,commitment, responsibility and interests are always more important than love and romance. Love may be the most unreliable thing in a marriage...how many people divorced because they found someone they LOVED MORE than their partners 🤔

This is exactly what Goldenleaf said. A marriage is a partnership. Well, I don't think the Universe does care about this cultural stuff (marriage ). But it is better here not to enter into sensible questions like religion, politics or societal issues. To answer you post, I would just say that people are full of certainties and great values until they personally face difficulties and tumble down. 

[queenofvegas]

13 hours ago, comingback said:

Exactly. We have the right to ask questions. I don't believe the Eurovision story, but maybe we will never know the full story.

 

 

Eurovision was probably their first kiss which is why they ended up just using that story as the start of everything. However I think it's very unlikely that that was the first time things were romantic between them. Celine's book even confirms this. People don't just kiss out of no where like that. Of course they will never admit that though because it would make Rene look like a creep. Also I don't think it was mentioned in the thread yet how Celine was blamed for Rene's divorce.

Regardless, even if it all was completely innocent and harmless, any reasonable person's intuition should be setting off red flags hearing this story. It's not fair to tell people not to discuss it. If it were anybody else it would be weird and creepy, but for some reason since it's Celine this gets a pass.

[emiliejolie]

10 hours ago, queenofvegas said:

Eurovision was probably their first kiss which is why they ended up just using that story as the start of everything. However I think it's very unlikely that that was the first time things were romantic between them. Celine's book even confirms this. People don't just kiss out of no where like that. Of course they will never admit that though because it would make Rene look like a creep. Also I don't think it was mentioned in the thread yet how Celine was blamed for Rene's divorce.

Regardless, even if it all was completely innocent and harmless, any reasonable person's intuition should be setting off red flags hearing this story. It's not fair to tell people not to discuss it. If it were anybody else it would be weird and creepy, but for some reason since it's Celine this gets a pass.

Everything can be discussed but in 1988 Celine was 20. No more a child or teen.

[DionFanAlways]

According to her she was the aggressor. Maybe she groomed him???? 

[EmiOnyx]

On 2/20/2026 at 5:23 AM, emiliejolie said:

This topic is a bit weird but I wanted to share my opinion and I will try, as English is to my native language, to be as clear as possible, in order to not be misunderstood.

I think this topic reflects the days we are living today. As things and morality change, it is always very radical at the beginning. And we tend today to see things either black or white.

Back to Céline and René story, and as everyone knows, I am always very septic around the "fairytale version" that  René tried to create ( at mercantile aim), I do believe the official version. 

And this is why :

- The Pygmalion scheme is one of the most common relationship construction. It is obvious that Céline and René were in that pattern. René created Céline, he offered her everything that was possible and far beyond the Dion family would have expected. Admiration is often the starting point of love feelings. I am sure that Céline, as she has always said, felt in love  for René very quickly in a teenage years.

Plus, René could have represented a role model, strong and secure. The opposite of Adhémar who was kind of enduring life more than managing it and was entirely supported / held by Thérèse, who wore panties in this family. Not even speaking about Adhémar's alcohol problems that pushed Thérèse to fight for two in this family.

I do believe that René started to develop other feelings than just professional ones because Celine was becoming the creature he had dreamed of. She sent him back the image of his own success and worth. Ego, my dear Ego !! Once again this is so common.

I am sure that, at the beginning, René did not put exact words on the feelings he had, because when you don't want to see things, even though it is obvious, you can't see.

There is one thing that is sure, René wouldn't have taken the risk, for nothing in this world, to damage his creation (Celine's career), and his successful career as the manager of Céline. ( Remember that Colonel Parker was his model )So even though René would have been crazy in love with Céline, he wouldn't have taken the risk to try something.

- René had a love experience before Céline and, contrary to his fellow Guy Cloutier, did not show any trend for younger women (or teen). This perversion (speaking about children/ teen) does not bloom one day at 55 years old !! It is here a the very beginning of the construction of a personality.

To conclude, and I don't want to appear as a low-qualified therapist 🤣, but if you look at their body language, sensuality and erotism were not a major ingredient of their couple.

I think that the kiss story after Céline won the Eurovision could be real ( after winning Céline felt strong, powerful and so ...  bold, audacious) maybe it has not happened on that exact day, some days before or some days after. But there is no reason not to believe it.

I completely agree with you, I don't believe in the grooming theory either and I would like to add that René started to feel attracted to Celine after her makeover because he saw her more as a woman, which confirms he was not a pedophile.

Furthermore, Celine was never isolated (a key element in grooming). Her mother, Thérèse, was famously protective and was constantly by her side.

Celine has also always been mature for her age, being the youngest in her family she was used to hanging out with people older than her so it's not surprising that she fell for someone older. She also said she admired him which is one of the reasons she fell for him. 

[PuraVida]

I think a wide majority of Celine fans would find this topic strange or insulting.

However, it seems these types of accusations and rumours are very common among the general public re: her and Rene, and videos/tweets/posts about it go viral...which isn't nice to see, as a Celine fan. Often times, the posts are made for clickbait and the comment section is rather ugly. And it's very rare to see a comment underneath which is setting the record straight or defending Celine...or Rene for that matter.

[Tyler1991]

2 hours ago, PuraVida said:

I think a wide majority of Celine fans would find this topic strange or insulting.

However, it seems these types of accusations and rumours are very common among the general public re: her and Rene, and videos/tweets/posts about it go viral...which isn't nice to see, as a Celine fan. Often times, the posts are made for clickbait and the comment section is rather ugly. And it's very rare to see a comment underneath which is setting the record straight or defending Celine...or Rene for that matter.

Agreed. I felt inclined to come back to this topic because I was just scrolling Instagram where there was a click bait post that had a fake celine quote saying rene was nice enough to wait until she was 15 or 18 and every comment was ready to burn Rene at the stake saying he groomed her, they felt sorry for her, he took advantage, blah blah.

It's good to see mostly sensible comments here. Most of us have been fans long enough to see their relationship. To see how deeply they love each other. The sadness his death brought to celine. Her everlasting commitment to him still. They have a kind of love I wish I had. 

I still remember the day Rene died. I was in shock and felt so awful. I'm not one to normally ever get emotional and cry, but I remember shedding some tears for Celine that day. I know how real their love is and the impact his death had on her. I remember that Vegas celebration of life thing they did where David foster sang the colour of my love to Celine in honor of their memory. How moved and emotional Celine was at everyone their to honor their love and his life.

I remember being exposed to Celine when I was a teenager and at the time my parents were beginning to go thru their own separation. It was seeing the way Celine and Rene interacted with each other that helped me to process how I've never seen my own parents love each other like that. Weirdly enough, it was seeing Celine and Rene's love for each other that helped me process my parents divorce. 

It's probably for the best Rene passed when he did in hindsight. Maybe a couple years later at most would've been okay. Hope that doesn't sound weird. While they've always had some grooming accusations, it seems the climate now towards age gap relationships has become highly speculatory and toxicly hostile. Im glad his end of life wasn't full of the world trying to label him a predator as it seems now. 

[Ukrfan]

2 hours ago, PuraVida said:

I think a wide majority of Celine fans would find this topic strange or insulting.

However, it seems these types of accusations and rumours are very common among the general public re: her and Rene, and videos/tweets/posts about it go viral...which isn't nice to see, as a Celine fan. Often times, the posts are made for clickbait and the comment section is rather ugly. And it's very rare to see a comment underneath which is setting the record straight or defending Celine...or Rene for that matter.

It's just sexism. It's always all over Reddit about Celine and Rene. Men = bad, predators.  

For some reason, France president's wife doesn't get nearly as much hate, even though she officially f***** him when he was underage. They don't even deny it, whereas in Celine's case, at least according to the official story, Celine was already 20 when their first time happened. Freaking TWENTY. 

[Unison Addict]

6 hours ago, Ukrfan said:

whereas in Celine's case, at least according to the official story, Celine was already 20 when their first time happened. Freaking TWENTY. 

People misunderstood their story, they were thinking that Celine and Rene started dating when Celine first met Rene in 1981 around the time of her debut when the truth is they met because Celine’s mom and brother came to Rene to send the demo tape of Celine’s first song. Also, majority of people thought it was Rene who fell for Celine hence they called him predator, pedophile, etc when it was Celine who fell for him.

Edited March 11, 2026 at 02:05 PM by Unison Addict

[queenofvegas]

17 hours ago, Ukrfan said:

It's just sexism. It's always all over Reddit about Celine and Rene. Men = bad, predators.  

For some reason, France president's wife doesn't get nearly as much hate, even though she officially f***** him when he was underage. They don't even deny it, whereas in Celine's case, at least according to the official story, Celine was already 20 when their first time happened. Freaking TWENTY. 

That's just a straw man. Many people have valid concerns and points that are nothing to do with sexism. 

[Nmj]

27 minutes ago, queenofvegas said:

That's just a straw man. Many people have valid concerns and points that are nothing to do with sexism. 

Please, if there was need for any concern, Celine and her family would’ve stopped it. Without Rene, there’s no Celine, not the Celine we know today at least.  The age gap is big no denying that, but when your the youngest of 14 children and parents who were middle aged at your conception that probably made Celine attracted to older people in general… not Just only “romantically” in general. 
 

Celine may have let gladly, Rene control of her career but she was clearly also in control in their private life, it was obvious. 
 

I really hate that people cradle Celine and give her this identity as an naive person who hasn’t a clue, Celine knew and knows what she’s doing.

 

If Rene had been a terrible “groomer” why would she still be honoring him 10 years later, now that she’s “free”’from him? Because, Celine didn’t feel that way, and if she don’t feel that way why should we? The fact is that when this relationship started in a romantic sense they were BOTH consenting adults and we have NO REASON to believe otherwise. Let’s take her at her word, if you don’t believe him, at least give her the benefit of the doubt for her word. 
 

 

[queenofvegas]

8 minutes ago, Nmj said:

Please, if there was need for any concern, Celine and her family would’ve stopped it. Without Rene, there’s no Celine, not the Celine we know today at least.  The age gap is big no denying that, but when your the youngest of 14 children and parents who were middle aged at your conception that probably made Celine attracted to older people in general… not Just only “romantically” in general. 
 

Celine may have let gladly, Rene control of her career but she was clearly also in control in their private life, it was obvious. 
 

I really hate that people cradle Celine and give her this identity as an naive person who hasn’t a clue, Celine knew and knows what she’s doing.

 

If Rene had been a terrible “groomer” why would she still be honoring him 10 years later, now that she’s “free”’from him? Because, Celine didn’t feel that way, and if she don’t feel that way why should we? The fact is that when this relationship started in a romantic sense they were BOTH consenting adults and we have NO REASON to believe otherwise. Let’s take her at her word, if you don’t believe him, at least give her the benefit of the doubt for her word. 
 

 

I'm definitely not accusing Rene of grooming Celine. We don't have enough evidence to say that. However, you can't say that if these were any other random people (non-celebrities) in this situation that it wouldn't look weird and you wouldn't be concerned. He fell in love with a woman young enough to be his daughter and who he knew since she was 13. That's weird. It's within reason for people to be suspicious about that. I just don't like how the fanbase is always so dismissive of people talking about this.

[Nmj]

5 minutes ago, queenofvegas said:

I'm definitely not accusing Rene of grooming Celine. We don't have enough evidence to say that. However, you can't say that if these were any other random people (non-celebrities) in this situation that it wouldn't look weird and you wouldn't be concerned. He fell in love with a woman young enough to be his daughter and who he knew since she was 13. That's weird. It's within reason for people to be suspicious about that. I just don't like how the fanbase is always so dismissive of people talking about this.

That’s because the relationship started decades ago and we take Celine at her word … and it’s now 2026 and he’s been dead for 10 years, and she’s still sticking by her story of truth. Everything that’s fake or misleading has a tendency to come out and see the truth, if “grooming” was the case, it would’ve came out by now. It hasn’t, and maybe just maybe that’s because she wasn’t groomed. 
 

People can call the age gap weird all they want… but “weird” is up to interpretation. We all have our “weird” things, to others and to us it may not be weird. I choose to believe Celine.

Edited March 12, 2026 at 03:01 AM by Nmj

[PuraVida]

21 hours ago, Tyler1991 said:

Agreed. I felt inclined to come back to this topic because I was just scrolling Instagram where there was a click bait post that had a fake celine quote saying rene was nice enough to wait until she was 15 or 18 and every comment was ready to burn Rene at the stake saying he groomed her, they felt sorry for her, he took advantage, blah blah.

Yeah idk if we saw the same post, but there was another one on Instagram that got 2-3k likes this past week when I came across it. Not sure how long it had been up, but it's from a big, well-known account. Using that same photo that they like to use from the early 80s where Celine is seated at a table with Rene, her mom, and maybe Eddy Marnay too?

I didn't have the energy at that moment to linger on it or check the comments -- I knew it would just get me upset. I imagine this kind of thing will just keep happening. We have our bubble, but unfortunately out there is a strong perception that the G-word applies to Celine's life and former marriage.