Gayville- Elton John and partner David Furnish are ready to say: “We do.”
Like Rosie O’Donnell and Kelli Carpenter and hundreds of other gay couples in recent weeks, Sir Elton told us exclusively that he and his beloved are going to wed.
“I was on the fence about it for a while,” the Rocket Man said. “I’ve been married before [he wed Renate Blauel in Australia in 1984]. I thought, why would I want to get married again?”
That more traditional marriage ended when the pop legend divorced her in ’88.
Elton added that it was President Bush’s proposed constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage that was the final push down the aisle he needed.
“I’m totally for it,” Elton told us. “In this day and age, if people who want to make a life commitment can’t have protection, then we live in a pretty sick world.”
Since he’s a British citizen, Elton says, he and the Canadian-born Furnish want to get married in England. They are waiting for a current Parliamentary measure on civil unions to come into law.
“We’re definitely going to do it when it gets passed,” he says. “I would like to commit myself to David. I already have in my mind anyway.”
Elton, 56, and Furnish, 40, have been together for 11 years. London’s Observer called the pair “the most conspicuous gay couple in the world.” The two attend parties in matching 18th-century costumes with powdered wigs, and each year auction off their wardrobes to benefit the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
In Las Vegas this past Valentine’s Day, the hitmaker released gigantic inflated roses to show his love for Furnish at Caesars Palace at the launch of his three-year concert series there. Furnish, who is also Elton’s business partner, made the film “Tantrums and Tiaras,” a hilarious documentary on what life with the piano man is like.
Chances are the wedding party will include their cocker spaniel, Arthur, who scurried down the red carpet at the InStyle benefit for Elton’s foundation in a collar adorned with a diamond Oscar statue. But so far the singer’s mum on whether there’ll be a prenup, which Rosie and Kelli O’Donnell decided not to do.
“They’ll be together forever,” Rosie’s spokeswoman Cindi Berger told us.