Shania Twain hopes to 'connect' with Celine Dion over shared diagnoses

Shania Twain has expressed her regret over Celine Dion's recent medical diagnosis with stiff-person syndrome.

"I hope to be able to connect with her at some point," the 57-year-old singer told Billboard this week.

"I think it's gotta be so difficult, and I know — only speaking from my experience — how horrifying it is to think that something is preventing you from singing, or interfering with that joy in your life," she said.

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Twain doesn't have the same illness that Dion was diagnosed with late last year, but she has been battling Lyme disease since getting bitten by a tick in 2003.

The Man I Feel Like A Woman singer told the publication: "I just pray that she is able to overcome it and she will be up there [on stage] singing for us all again."

"She's a one-of-a-kind, extraordinary vocalist and entertainer," she gushed, adding that she is "such a fan".

Dion, 55, was diagnosed with stiff person syndrome last year, she announced in December. Symptoms of the rare condition include extreme muscle stiffness, rigidity and painful body spasms.

"Unfortunately, these spasms affect every aspect of my daily life, sometimes causing difficulties when I walk and not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I'm used to," the singer revealed in an Instagram video.

Earlier this month, her sister revealed that they've had trouble trying to treat the singer's symptoms. "We can't find any medicine that works, but having hope is important," she told French-Canadian publication Le Journal de Montreal.

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Twain has spoken candidly about how her Lyme diagnosis has put her career in danger. "My symptoms were quite scary because before I was diagnosed, I was on stage very dizzy," she recalled in her 2022 Netflix documentary, Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl. "I was losing my balance. I was afraid I was gonna fall off the stage, and the stage is quite high."

She also suffered damage to her vocal cords. In 2011, she had open-throat surgery to fix the nerve damage.

"My voice was never the same again," she said in the documentary. "I didn't understand it."