WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — A blissful Rene Angelil says his wife Celine Dion and newborn twin boys are healthy and happy.
Just back from helping the superstar songstress feed the babies, and grasping a gift a woman had thrust into his hands, the tired but joyful-looking impresario said the family was still overwhelmed by the emotional event.
“We haven’t been sleeping much the last couple of days but everything is going really well,” he said in an interview Sunday from the West Palm Beach hospital where Dion is resting.
“We’re so happy.”
On Saturday morning, the Canadian singer gave birth by caesarean section to healthy fraternal twins. Dion’s mother and husband were by her side when, at 11:11 a.m., the first boy was born, weighing 5 lbs, 4 ounces. The second baby came a moment later, at 11:12 a.m., and weighed 5 lbs, 10 ounces. Doctors say the singer and the twins will spend the next few days in the Florida hospital.
Angelil said the new babies, who spent the first hours of their life in incubators, are now big enough to be held.
“It’s really something,” Angelil said with a soft chuckle. “Taking them in our arms is like nothing else.”
The couple haven’t yet named the newborns.
“We thought we’d have chosen the names by now,” Angelil said. “But maybe seeing their faces it will help us.”
He added the couple’s eldest son is happy to have two more brothers.
“He’ll have someone to play with,” the proud papa said.
The twins were delivered by Dion’s physicians, Dr. Ruel Stoessel, a maternal fetal medicine specialist, and obstetrician Dr. Ronald Ackerman at St. Mary’s Medical Center.
Stoessel said Dion’s enthusiasm to have healthy children really set her apart.
“There’s a special flame that she has that’s really bright and very enduring,” the physician said Sunday. “It’s always a pleasure to have someone so highly motivated and loving and caring.”
The twins, he noted, were born with a shocking amount of hair.
“We were making comments that she’s going to need to have stylists come and take care of them,” Stoessel said with a laugh.
The 42-year-old superstar was just over 35 weeks pregnant when she gave birth. The twins were due in November.
On Oct. 17, Dion was admitted to the hospital on the recommendations of her doctor because of her high-risk pregnancy. The singer had been struggling to get pregnant since early last year.
The Grammy-winning songstress is known for a string of pop ballad hits including My Heart Will Go On, Because You Loved Me and A New Day Has Come.
She lives in Jupiter Island, Fla.
