Elton John is being sued by his ex-wife for £3 million after writing about their relationship in his autobiography
Elton John and Renate Blauel on their wedding day in 1984 (Patrick Riviere/Getty)
Elton John is being sued for a reported £3 million by his ex-wife Renate Blauel, who claims he broke the terms of their divorce by writing about her in his book.
John, 73, met Blauel, 67, a German-born sound engineer, in 1983 while he was working on his comeback album Too Low for Zero.
The pair were married for four years before the relationship ended with John’s announcement that he is gay, and they divorced in 1988.
In June, 2020, Blauel filed an injunction against her former husband, although the details were unclear.
But legal documents filed in London’s High Court this week show that Blauel is suing John over comments he made about her in his 2019 autobiography, Me, which she said broke the terms of their divorce 32 years ago.
According to The Independent, the documents revealed that John agreed to remove passages of the book mentioning Blauel before its publication.
But she has now claimed that the sections mentioning her that were left in, while entirely positive, triggered some long-standing mental health problems.
Blauel is reportedly asking for a £3 million payout, despite rumours that she received between £5 million and £10 million when she divorced John.
Elton John described his regret over ‘breaking the heart’ of his ex-wife in his autobiography.
In his autobiography, Elton John, who is now married to partner David Furnish, described his regret over “breaking the heart” of ex-wife Renate Blauel.
He wrote: “I’d broken the heart of someone I loved and who loved me unconditionally, someone I couldn’t fault in any way.
“Despite all the pain, there was no acrimony involved at all.
“For years afterwards, whenever something happened to me, the press would turn up on her doorstep, looking for her to dish the dirt, and she never, ever has: she told them to leave her alone.”
A “source close to Elton” told The Sun: “Elton is shocked and saddened by Renate’s claim, especially as he has only ever praised her publicly.”
Another “source” added: “He has always had a very pleasant relationship with Renate, respects her enormously and would never have said anything revealing about their marriage.”
