Before their wedding, in 1984, Sir Elton out as bisexual in an interview with Rolling Stone, and a few years after their divorce, he was openly gay.

In a 2008 interview with The Australian, Sir Elton talked about his marriage to Renate, saying: “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.’

“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.”

However, Renate was not the first woman in Sir Elton’s life, as he had been previously engaged to secretary Linda Woodrow in the late 1960s.