÷ (Divide)

Celine Dion suspected something was wrong with her for a a long time. But it wasn’t until she publicly shared her diagnosis with the rare neurological condition Stiff Person Syndrome in 2022 that the singer finally felt like she’d come clean about her health struggles. In the latest preview of an upcoming NBC primetime special in which Dion discusses her health issues, the Canadian powerhouse vocalist tells The Today Show‘s Hoda Kotb that she knew it was time to be more transparent.

“I could not do this anymore,” Dion says of the burden of not telling her fans and the public the secret she was carrying in the first broadcast interview since her diagnosis. “What do you want me to say? I have… what? We did not know what was going on,” the singer says. “I did not take the time. I should have stopped. Take the time to figure it out… my husband as well was fighting for his own life. I had to raise my kids. I had to hide. I had to try to be a hero. Feeling my body leaving me, holding onto my own dreams. And the lying for me was – the burden was like too much.”