Rene Angelil and Celine Dion.

LAS VEGAS – René Angélil, the husband of award-winning Canadian singer
Celine Dion, died on Thursday at the age of 73 after a long battle with cancer,
Dion announced.

Angélil was of Lebanese and Syrian descent.

“It’s with profound sadness that we are announcing that
René Angélil, 73, died this morning at his Las Vegas home after a courageous
battle with cancer. The family wishes to mourn in private,” her website
said. “Other information will be provided in the next few days.”

The Canadian entertainment manager, who discovered Dion, 47,
when she was 12-years-old and drove her career to stardom, married her in 1994
at a lavish wedding in Montreal’s Notre Dame Basilica.

The couple have three sons, René-Charles, 14, and 5-year-old
twins Nelson and Eddy.

His illness, first diagnosed in 1999, prompted Dion to put her
career on hold in 2014, suspending her Las Vegas residency. Dion said Angélil
supported her later return to the stage.

“My condolences to @CelineDion, and to the children,
friends and loved ones of René Angélil on his passing,” Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted.

In Montreal, flags were flying at half-staff in honor of
Angelil, a spokeswoman for the city’s mayor, Denis Coderre, said on Thursday.

Angélil stepped down as Dion’s manager in 2014, turning her
career over to a friend of the couple but he remained involved in business
decisions.

Dion told Good Morning America in early 2015 that Angélil, who
had throat cancer, had to eat with the help of a feeding tube three times a
day, and was not able to talk or swallow.

Angélil, a Montreal native, first met the French-Canadian singer
when she was 12 after she sent him a recorded song she had written with her
mother.

He agreed to manage Dion in exchange for full control over her
career and was said to have mortgaged his home to finance her first album.

When Dion was 18, Angélil instructed the French-speaking singer
to remake her image by changing her hair and capping her teeth, and register in
English school so she could record songs for the U.S. market.

Their marriage was initially opposed by Dion’s mother, not only
because of their 26-year age gap, but because Angélil had three children from
two previous unions, the singer told media in 2013.

“I have to say that for my mom he was not the prince
charming — the ideal prince charming. It was very difficult,” Dion told
Access Hollywood.com in 2013.

The singer said her mother and family of 13 siblings came to
approve of Angélil.

“She
had no choice. Love won.”