When advertising exec David Furnish first met singer-songwriter Elton John at a dinner party in his mansion in 1993, he was impressed by the superstar’s lack of ego.
The very next day they went on their first date, but it wasn’t all sunshine and roses.
“He was very, very shut down in terms of accepting love,” David revealed of Elton in a December 2024 interview with TIME.
“No one had ever asked him to do personal things like go for a walk together, those kind of joyful things.”
But the pair’s first date saw them grab takeout from Mr. Chow’s restaurant in Windsor, England, where Elton was living at the time, and a spark was ignited.
Elton was drawn in by David’s independent nature; “He had a real job, his own apartment, a car,” Elton later revealed in an interview with Parade magazine.
“I didn’t need to take care of him. I thought, ‘God, this is new territory for me — someone wants to be with me just because he likes me’.
“I knew he was the one because he is not afraid of me. He always tells me exactly what he thinks,” he added.
Elton’s love life had been under the microscope since he first came out as bisexual in a 1976 Rolling Stone cover story.
How many marriages has Elton John had?
The Benny and the Jets hitmaker went on to marry sound technician Renate Blauel in Australia on Valentine’s Day 1984.
“He’s the nicest guy I’ve ever met,” Renate told United Press International at the time. “I’ve heard all sorts of stories about Elton and that he’s supposed to be bisexual, but that doesn’t worry me.”
In his 2019 memoir, Me, Elton described his wife as “dignified”, “decent”, and someone he “couldn’t fault in any way”, but in a Sydney Morning Herald interview in 2007, Elton shared that his then-addiction to drugs and alcohol had played a part in his decision to marry a woman.
“A drug addict thinks like this: ‘I’ve had enough boyfriends and that’s not made me happy, so I’ll have a wife; that will change everything’,” the star said.
“And I loved Renate. She’s a great girl. I really, really loved her. But, you know. It is one of the things I regret most in my life, hurting her.
“She was the classiest woman I’ve ever met,” he added. “But it wasn’t meant to be. I was living a lie.”
Why did Elton John’s ex-wife sue him?
Renate and Elton divorced in 1988, and Renate would later sue the star for writing about their union in his biography and the hit film about his life, Rocketman.
“Renate is particularly upset by the film,” Renate’s lawyer, Yisrael Hiller, told the BBC. “In her mind, the film seeks to portray their marriage as a sham, which she wholeheartedly disputes and considers a false and disrespectful portrayal of their time together.”
In 2020, it was announced that the case had been settled out of court.
“The parties are happy to announce that they have resolved this case in a way that acknowledges Renate’s need for privacy,” a rep for Elton said in a statement.
“For her part, Renate acknowledges that Elton has acted in a dignified and respectful way towards her in the last 30 years and has always been happy to help her.”
Elton would not marry again until same-sex marriage became legal in the UK, and the now openly gay songwriter officially married David Furnish.
How much older is Elton John than his husband?
The dynamic between Elton and David is an interesting one, with Elton being 16 years older than David.
After the pair got together, David became a film-maker and he gave audiences a rare insight into the real Elton John in his 1995 doco Tantrums & Tiaras.
“It was a bit like video therapy in a way,” David later told TIME. “It gave me a chance to go in with a camera, like a shield, and kind of confront and shine a light on things in his life that I thought were odd.”
George Michael would later advise Elton to bury the doc, which showed him in full meltdown mode on occasion.
“David can tell you that my fuse is very short, and the worst thing about my temper is that David is very rational about things and he’ll explain,” Elton admitted to TIME. “And I’ll get even madder about it.”
To this day, Elton says he can still have a short fuse.
“I will flare up if I’m tired, if I’m exhausted, if I’m overwhelmed,” the star told TIME. “I don’t like having that temperament, but it’s all usually done and dusted within five or 10 minutes.”
Indeed, the dynamic between Elton and David proved to be a successful one, with Elton proposing to David in 2005, when civil partnerships between gay couples were given the green light in the UK.
On December 21, 2005, Elton and David became the first “registered” gay couple in the UK after they registered their civil partnership at Windsor Guildhall government services and municipal offices in London.
From there, the pair started to grow their family.
On Christmas Day 2010, Elton and David welcomed their first child, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish John, via a surrogate.
Just over two years later, Zachary became an older brother after the happy couple expanded their family by welcoming a second son.
Elijah Joseph Daniel Furnish John was welcomed into the world via the same surrogate on January 11, 2013.
A year later, David and Elton officially married when same-sex marriage became legal in the UK.
The ceremony was held on December 21, 2014, which also marked the ninth anniversary of their civil partnership, with the two saying “I do” at a small ceremony at their Windsor estate in Berkshire.
Though very young at the time, both Zachary and Elijah were part of the wedding, serving as the ring bearers.“If you’d had said to me 10 years ago, I’d be sitting on your show, married to the man I love, and have two beautiful children, I would have said, ‘You put acid in my drink.’ But life throws you challenges and life throws you curveballs — great curveballs,” Elton said in an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2016.
Is Elton John still with his husband?
And the star’s marriage has stood the test of time, with the duo still together raising Zachary, now 14, and Elijah, now 12 – something that was made easier after Elton retired from touring in July 2023.
“Finally off the road and into the sunset. So excited for the next chapter together,” the star wrote in an Instagram post at the time.
However, despite enjoying more time to focus on family life, Elton has since experienced some health struggles.
In 2024, the star revealed that he had suffered an eye infection during a stay in the south of France, which caused him to lose vision in his right eye.
Speaking to Good Morning America, Elton revealed his health challenge had “floored” him.
“I can’t see a lyric, for starters. We’re taking an initiative to try and get it better, but at the moment, that’s really what we’re concentrating on,” he said.
“It’s never fortunate for anything like this to happen. It kinda floored me, and I can’t see anything. I can’t read anything, I can’t watch anything.”
In another interview with The Times in April 2025, he divulged more details about the impact his vision loss had on family life.
“I can see you, but I can’t see TV, I can’t read,” the star told the interviewer. “I can’t see my boys playing rugby and soccer, and it has been a very stressful time because I’m used to soaking it all up.”
It was a situation Elton described as being “distressing”.
“You get emotional, but you have to get used to it because I’m lucky to have the life I have,” Elton said.
“I still have my wonderful family, and I can still see something out of [my left eye]. So you say to yourself, ‘Just get on with it.’”
Reflecting on his music career, the star shared how becoming a father had changed him.
“I always said I wanted to die on stage,” he said. “Now I want my gravestone to read: ‘He was a great dad.’ My career has been wonderful, but the kids are what matters.”
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