Celine Dion fans have been left cringing thanks to a resurfaced clip of her on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which has been branded ‘humiliating’.
The Canadian power ballad queen appeared on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show several times over its 20-year run.
However, her 2007 interview in particular has had an online resurgence thanks to Reddit, where users are slamming the host for bringing up a ‘weird’ topic and proceeding to ask ‘dumb questions’.
The subject at hand was Celine’s son’s hair, which was long at the time.
Ellen, now 67, pulled out a smiley photoshoot snap of Celine, 57, her son René-Charles as a boy, and Celine’s late husband René Angélil.
She launched straight into a semi-comedic, semi-accusatory conversation, stating to Celine directly: ‘It seems like you’re busy with something because you’re forgetting to cut your son’s hair.’
Holding up the magazine shoot as the audience chuckled, Ellen continued: ‘Look at him, he is beautiful, but look at his hair. When are you gonna cut that hair?’
Straight on the defence, Celine’s protective motherly instincts kicked in as she replied: ‘Do you have a problem with that?’
Despite the camera still being focused on the magazine, an awkward shift in atmosphere could immediately be sensed, with Ellen retaliating: ‘No, I don’t have a problem. That is some long hair.’
Providing further explanation on her son’s locks, which were flowing past his shoulders at the time, Celine shared: ‘It’s amazing, right? Some people shave the head of their children, and people say, “Oh, isn’t that terrible? Well, I don’t even cut my son’s hair, and they say, “Oh my God, when is she gonna cut her son’s hair?”
‘Whatever I will do, I won’t please everyone.’
The My Heart Will Go On hitmaker continued: ‘But something I can reassure every mother here, the long hair, do you know that René-Charles makes his own decisions most of the time?
‘My son makes the decision about his hair.’
Asked further by Ellen if René-Charles ‘wants’ his hair cut, Celine said: ‘I have asked him about 25 times, if not five million, “Do you want mummy to open your face a little bit? Do you want me to open your eyes? You have beautiful eyes. Do you want me to trim a little bit?” And no.
‘When he’s ready, I’ll cut it, and when I cut it, they’ll say, “Oh, it’s a little too short”.’
In a rather abrupt switch-up, Ellen then changed the topic of conversation entirely without acknowledging what Celine had said, beginning: ‘So, let’s talk about the CD, are you excited about getting back in the game and having a new CD coming out?’
Discussing the nostalgic clip online this week, viewers admitted that it left them feeling uncomfortable, slating Ellen for being ‘rude’.
Others also pointed out the irony of the whole thing, with tar-luthien on Reddit writing: ‘It’s just so funny to me that a woman famed for having short hair was complaining about a boy having long hair’.
‘It’s odd. It feels like she’s alluding to something something gender roles “boys shouldn’t have long hair”,’ added ArnoldPalmerAlertBU.
‘a lesbian who never dressed femininely asking a question like that… the irony’, stated aliensuperstars_.
Adicol branded Ellen’s question ‘brutal’ while mangosandkiwis joked: ‘I would have said, “when are you gonna grow your hair?”‘
Vivahermione accused Ellen of lacking ‘awareness’ and called Ellen’s failure to apologise out after Celine shut her down.
There was also plenty of praise for ‘queen’ Celine with her handling of the matter, with dreamslikedeserts commenting: ‘So wild to think of them being like “so what do we want to ask one of the greatest singers of all time? Have we considered undermining her parenting and belittling her child?”‘
‘She answered just like the damn national treasure she is’, declared Most_Description296.
René-Charles is now 24 years old—and yes, he has short hair, but he kept the longish tresses into his early twenties, which he would style in a slicked-back look.
Named after his father, who died in 2016, he was born via IVF, with Celine, who also has younger twins Nelson and Eddy Angélil, previously hailing him as a ‘miracle child’.
He has since followed in his mother’s footsteps to become a musician, releasing his own R&B and soul tunes to great success.
René-Charles has often been seen out in public with Celine, particularly following her 2022 stiff-person syndrome diagnosis. For instance, in 2024, he joined her at the Grammys to present an award to Taylor Swift.
As for Ellen, her show got the chop in May 2022 following a run of over 3,000 episodes.
Its cancellation was confirmed in 2021 after a string of allegations of workplace bullying came to light. An internal investigation was conducted while public support for Ellen dipped.
Speaking out in her first interview after the announcement, Ellen called the accusations ‘orchestrated’ and ‘misogynistic’.
In its latter years, the programme had already started struggling to maintain its viewership, with Ellen also saying she wanted to end the show to pursue other creative endeavours.
The Ellen DeGeneres Show received 33 Daytime Emmys in its time before the final episode aired on May 26, 2022, with Jennifer Aniston, Pink, and Billie Eilish as guests and Ellen’s family members, plus wife Portia de Rossi, in the audience.
Reflecting on the end of the show last July, Ellen said that she ‘got kicked out of showbusiness for being mean,’ vowing to bow out from the industry permanently after fulfilling her existing obligations.
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