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Celine Dion<\/a>\u00a0has been leaning on her fans well before her Stiff Person Syndrome diagnosis. ET’s Nischelle Turner spoke to <\/span>Hoda Kotb<\/a>\u00a0the day the\u00a0<\/span>Today\u00a0<\/span><\/em>host’s <\/span>primetime interview with the iconic singer<\/a> is set to air on NBC, and Kotb, 59, shared how Dion’s audiences have helped the singer through <\/span>her health struggles<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Dion, 56, has been battling health issues for nearly two decades. Though Kotb notes that Dion “knew something was funky with her throat” early on, she says the singer was largely able to “explain away” her symptoms. However, that changed four years ago when things “started to become debilitating.”<\/span><\/p>\n While on stage<\/a> during those years, Dion had a trick for getting through hard moments during a performance.<\/span><\/p>\n “She would sing her songs and then she would take the microphone and put it out to the crowd,” Kotb tells ET. “Why? To get a break. Her fans were helping her.”<\/span><\/p>\n When COVID-19 hit, Kotb says it was “weirdly a blessing” for Dion “because now she could heal, she could stop, she could be home.” However, during that time at home, <\/span>Dion canceled<\/a> her remaining\u00a0Courage World Tour dates due to “severe and persistent muscle spasms.” Afterwards, Dion entered into a self-imposed isolation of sorts.<\/span><\/p>\n “She is used to singing for big crowds, so since she couldn’t sing, she said she didn’t want to go outside and be with her children because people would say, ‘Oh, she seemed fine with her kids… Why wasn’t she on stage? I had to get my money back for my ticket,'” Kotb says of Dion, who\u00a0<\/span>shares sons<\/a> Ren\u00e9-Charles, 23, Nelson, 13, and Eddy, 13, with her late husband,\u00a0Ren\u00e9 Ang\u00e9lil.<\/span><\/p>\n “She was so concerned about [her fans], so it was kind of an isolation where she was living,” Kotb adds. “She was learning to work with a PT to keep her muscles limber to know what to do when something starts to to cramp up.”<\/span><\/p>\n It was in late 2022 that she got her <\/span>Stiff Person Syndrome diagnosis<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to the\u00a0<\/span>Mayo Clinic<\/a>, Stiff Person Syndrome is “a rare disorder of motor function characterized by involuntary stiffness of axial muscles and superimposed painful muscle spasms, which are often induced by startle or emotional stimuli.”<\/span><\/p>\n As Kotb sat down to interview Dion, she, like <\/span>many of the singer’s fans<\/a>, “didn’t know how bad” her health struggles had been.<\/span><\/p>\n “I did not know the extent of the illness. I did not know how debilitating it was for her,” Kotb says. “I had no idea that she was concerned about losing her life. I did not know any of those things, so I think the thing that surprised me the most was what she’d been through in secret… She was battling this by herself.”<\/span><\/p>\n