Sir Elton John's jilted fiancee says he called off their wedding one month before the big day.
Sir Elton John
While the 72-year-old star is now happily married to David Furnish, he was engaged to Linda Hannon in 1970 but decided to call off the wedding as he was struggling with his sexuality.
Linda, 75, told the Daily Mirror: "He'd be silent and moody. I didn't have a clue he was struggling with his sexuality.
"We were a month away from the wedding when he drunkenly woke me up and told me it was off. Then he called his stepfather to come and get him. He walked out and that was it. I was so shocked. I loved him very much, and I thought he loved me."
And Linda has admitted that she and Elton - who she still refers to by his real name Reg Dwight - have not had any contact since they split.
She said: "Reg and I have never been in communication since he woke me up to say he was leaving.
"His stepfather arrived with a truck and moved him out. I read somewhere that Elton paid me off. I've never received a dime from him. If we'd married, maybe I wouldn't be sitting here in Dallas, still working as a doctors' office manager at 75."
Linda revealed that his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin and blues singer Long John Baldry, convinced Elton to dump her.
She explained: "They told him to call off the wedding, insisting he was going to ruin two lives, his own and mine."
Elton went on to marry German sound engineer Renate Blauel on Valentine's Day 1984 but they divorced four years later in 1988 when he finally came out as gay.
He married David in 2014 and the couple have sons Zachary, eight, and six-year-old Elijah, together.
Tagged in Sir Elton John