Emotional Celine Dion At The Funeral Of Her Husband Rene Angelil

Celine Dion led hundreds of mourners in an emotional final farewell to her late husband René Angélil on Friday.

The heartbroken singer elegantly dressed in a black full-sleeve dress and a long black veil managed to maintain her composure for the touching ceremony remembering the showbiz manager at the Notre-Dame Basilica in Old Montreal.

She was joined by her three children. Older son René Charles, 14, escorted his elderly grandmother Thérèse, 88, into the service, while Celine walked in gripping the hands of her twin five-year-old sons Nelson and Eddy,

A huge number of well-wishers also gathered for the 'national funeral' service - filling the aisles of the church and the area outside.

A national funeral is the closest a non-politician can get to a state funeral in Canada and is in-part paid for by the government. The couple are so popular in the province and the country at large that Angélil and his grieving wife were offered the highest honor.

Also in attendance was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's wife, Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau, and federal Heritage Minister Mélanie Jol.

Angélil died of throat cancer at the age of 73 on January 14, Celine, 46, was almost 26 years his junior.

The couple met when she was just 12-years-old when he became her manager - with Angélil mortgaging his home to help her make her first record. 

They had a secret affair that began seven years later but they didn't go public for another five in fear of criticism over their age gap.

They were married in a lavish wedding broadcast on Canadian TV in December 1994. At first her mother wouldn't approve of the couple but eventually came to accept him as her son-in-law while Celine referred to him as 'the only boyfriend I ever had'. 

From early Friday morning, mourners gathered to pay their respects at the Gothic Revival church in the heart of Montreal.

Many in attendance were fans of Dion's who wanted to show their support and locals in the region where the couple are almost seen as royalty. 

'We really don't know them on a personal basis, but from knowing them for all these years ... you see them and you follow them all your life and it feels like it's your family," Jimena Valdez, a fan of Dion's music visiting from Mexico, told Reuters.

'So this is a difficult time for them and you want to be here for them ... in good times and bad times, like family.'

Dion arrived so the funeral could begin at 3.20pm - opening with Dion's version of Trois Heures Vingt

Reference: dailymail