Love Stories: How Elton John found love with David Furnish at a last-minute dinner party

Elton John was bunkered down in his palatial estate when he reached for his landline.

It was October 1993 and the British music icon had returned from America to Woodside, his Queen Anne-influenced abode, near Windsor, in the English countryside.

He had dialled the friend to ask him to "rattle together" some new people for a dinner party. John would host.

The call set the Rocketman singer on a path to meeting his one true love, David Furnish.

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"I was attracted to David immediately. He was very well dressed, very shy," John told Parade magazine in 2010.

Before meeting Furnish, a Canadian advertising executive based in London, John's private life had shifted from fun loving relationships to a provider of luxury goods.

"I'd always choose someone younger. I wanted to smother them with love. I'd take them around the world, try to educate them," he said.

"One after another they got a Cartier watch, a Versace outfit, maybe a sports car. They didn't have jobs. They were reliant on me."

The then 54-year-old megastar soon tired of the repetitive nature of the connections, each seemingly ending in resentment against the singer after six months.

Furnish, then 38, was different. He had a job, his own money, an apartment and a car.

In fact, on the evening of the dinner party, Furnish reportedly declined the offer of a chauffeured car and instead drove himself. It was in case he needed an early escape.

But he didn't. Furnish was drawn to John, the man, not the singer behind the piano.

After hitting it off at the party, John surreptitiously got Furnish's phone number and invited him to dinner in London the following night.

They had Chinese takeaway from fine dining restaurant Mr Chow's in Knightsbridge.

"Our romance was instant but slow and we didn't live together for quite awhile," John told Piers Morgan in 2019.

The Sacrifice singer said what struck him about Furnish is he wasn't in awe of him.

"He was always going to be confrontational, he would always tell me the truth. I've learnt that relationships have to be 50/50," he said.

"He's my soulmate. He's the person I speak to first in the morning and last thing at night."

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The couple took their relationship to the next level in May 2005 when John proposed. They entered a civil partnership in December that same year.

They were married in 2014 when same-sex marriage was legalised in the UK. It was Furnish's first marriage, and the second for John.

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On Valentine's Day in 1984, John walked down the aisle with German recording engineer Renate Blauel. They tied the knot at Mark's Church, in Sydney's Darling Point.

The marriage lasted four years.

Decades later, John spoke of his regret at not living his truth and causing pain to Blauel.

"Many years ago, I chose Australia for my wedding to a wonderful woman for whom I have so much love and admiration," he said.

"I wanted more than anything to be a good husband, but I denied who I really was, which caused my wife sadness, and caused me huge guilt and regret."

John's life with Furnish continued to flourish in the 2000s.

The couple became first-time parents on Christmas Day in 2010 with the birth of their son, Zachary, via surrogate.

They welcomed a second son, Elijah, through the same surrogate three years later.

Fatherhood was a contentious issue for the couple. In the early days of their relationship John was adamant he didn't want children.

Yet, as Furnish, now a producer and filmmaker, discovered, this wasn't always the case.

During production of the Elton John: Never Too Late, Furnish unearthed archival video footage of John speaking about his desire to one day be a father.

"And there he was in 1976 talking about what's ultimately our life today," Furnish said in an interview Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"I came from a very happy family, so I always wanted to have kids, but Elton was like, 'No, my life's too big, I don't think I would be a good parent, I'm too self-centred.' It was very much a non-discussion."

Tradition remains important to the pair. Since their first meeting, now more than 30 years ago, each Saturday they leave each other a love note.

"Every Saturday, we gave each other an anniversary card, because we met on a Saturday," Furnish told 6LACK in 2018.

"So we wrote down, in like a little card that you put next to the bed, 'Happy Anniversary,' and you write about the week that's passed and the week that's coming, and you connect and you tell each other you love each other."

These days, John and Furnish, 61, are taking things a little slower.

Earlier this month, the 77-year-old singer opened up about his health.

In a statement shared to his 4.9 million Instagram followers, he revealed he is "dealing with a severe eye infection".

"That has unfortunately left me with only limited vision in one eye," he wrote.

"I am healing, but it's an extremely slow process and it will take some time before sight returns to the impacted eye."

As part of his healing, John has spent time recuperating at home.

"I am so grateful for the excellent team of doctors and nurses and my family, who have taken such good care of me over the last several weeks," he said.

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