Stars pay tribute to Céline Dion's husband, René Angélil

Angelil died yesterday aged 73, after a struggle with cancer.

Dion announced his passing in a Twitter message, saying: "Rene Angelil passed away this morning at his home in Las Vegas after a long and courageous battle against cancer."

A spokesman for the singer, Marc Olivier, said more information would be given in the coming days, but for now the family wished to be left to mourn in private.

News of Angelil's death triggered an outpouring of sympathy from Dion's fans, with the singer's name trending on Twitter worldwide.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted his condolences to Dion and to Angelil's six children, including three from a previous marriage.

Angelil's home city of Montreal announced that flags would be flown at half mast in his honor, as mayor Denis Coderre paid tribute to "a monument of the entertainment world."

 'All my life' 

Behind the scenes, Angelil invested Dion's earnings from concerts and 220 million albums sold worldwide in restaurants, dance clubs and golf courses. He launched clothing lines, perfumes and other Dion branded merchandise, building an empire of wealth for them to share.

"There is no other manager like him," Dion once said. "Ninety-nine point nine percent of what's happened to me (my success) is because of Rene."

In 1994, when she was 19 and he was 45, the couple married in an extravagant wedding ceremony that was televised live in Canada, and splashed all over glossy magazines.

"My mother wanted to kill him," Dion said later.

Eventually the couple landed in Las Vegas where Dion played nearly 1 000 shows, earning her more millions.

Their fairytale life, however, took a turn when Angelil was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2013. A year later he stepped down as Dion's manager - a position he held for more than 30 years.

Below, is Celine Dion's candid interview with USA Today, recorded in August last year, where she speaks about her ailing husband.

(File photo: Getty Images)