Elton John’s ex-fiancee Linda Hannon has spoken out about her heartbreak after the singer called off their wedding.
Linda, 75, was set to marry Elton, then known as Reg Dwight, back in 1970, but claims the singer drunkenly woke her up a month before their wedding day to tell her it was off.
Speaking to The Mirror, Linda said she was completely unaware he was struggling with his sexuality, but recalled retrospectively how the signs were there – having discovered him after he made a suicide attempt weeks before he left with co-writer Bernie Taupin.
‘He’d be silent and moody,’ Linda said. ‘I didn’t have a clue he was struggling with his sexuality.
‘A few weeks before Reg left, Bernie and I found him lying with his head in the gas oven with the window open.
‘At the time he said it was because his music career wasn’t taking off as quickly as he hoped. He was in one of his big depressions.’
She claims Elton’s decision to cancel the wedding came after Bernie and Long John Baldry took him out on a stag do, who told him to call it off after saying ‘he was going to ruin two lives’ in Elton and Linda’s.
Linda believes the song Someone Saved My Life Tonight, which includes the lyrics, ‘You almost had your hooks in me, didn’t you dear?’, was written about her following the split.
Elton went onto marry Renate Blauel in 1984, but divorced in 1988 when he came out as gay.
The musician now has two children, Zachary, eight, and Elijah, six, with David Furnish, who he married in 2014 after converting their long-term civil partnership.
Elton’s life is the subject of upcoming biopic Rocketman, starring Taron Egerton, which explores his struggles with drugs, his sexuality and depression in his early career.
Metro.co.uk has reached out to Elton’s reps for comment.
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