“My favourite thing about myself is the way I see life,” says the entertainer. “I have this child-like wonderment. Now, even more, I see things through the eyes of my kids.”
That upbeat personality has been put to the hardest of tests.
Two years ago, just three minutes before he was set to take the stage in London, Bublé received a shocking text from his wife, Argentine actress Luisana Lopilato, that tore his world apart: their then 3-year- old son Noah had been diagnosed with liver cancer.
The Vancouver-based couple – who are also parents to son Elias, 2, and daughter Vida, 4 months – uprooted their lives that same month and moved to California, where they stayed by Noah’s bedside at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as he underwent gruelling treatments and chemotherapy over the next seven months.
Sitting down with WHO 18 months after Noah’s doctors cleared him of cancer, the relief Bublé still feels is palpable: “Our prayers were answered. Life is good,” he says, though his signature sparkle fades for a moment when he reflects on the lifelong impact his son’s illness has had on him.
“Listen, I am different,” he says.
“You don’t go through big, dramatic things like I’ve gone through or my wife has gone through without it having an effect on you.”
With Noah’s cancer in remission, Bublé recently released his 10th studio album, called Love but officially titled with just the heart emoji, a project he says almost didn’t happen after his son’s diagnosis.
“I’m spending my time doing things I love, and with people I love, for people I love.”
For Michael Buble’s full exclusive interview with WHO, be sure to pick up the new issue of the magazine, out now.