On This Day, Feb. 14, 1984: Elton John marries for the first time

On This Day, Feb. 14, 1984…

Rocker Elton John married German-born sound engineer Renate Blauel in an extravagant wedding in Australia. The marriage didn’t last long and they split in 1988.

Elton has said he realized he was “living a lie” and later said he believed that “being married would cure me of everything wrong in my life.”

Elton’s love life took a turn for the better when he started a relationship with David Furnish in 1993. In 2005 they entered into a civil partnership in the U.K., and after same-sex marriage became legal there, they married in December of 2014. They have two sons together: Zachary Jackson Levon, who was born in 2010, and Elijah Joseph Daniel, who was born in 2013.

In 2020, Blauel sued Elton for writing about their relationship in his 2019 autobiography, Me, but the suit was quickly settled out of court.

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