Since his son’s birth 18 months ago, Sir Elton John has been the epitome of the proud father. But the flamboyant star, now enjoying life as the parent of a toddler, has admitted it will be ‘heartbreaking’ for Zachary to grow up without a mother. The singer, 65, and his civil partner David Furnish, were delighted when Zachary arrived on Christmas Day 2010.
Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John – to give him his full name – was born via surrogate in California and was conceived using a donor egg. Sir Elton and Mr Furnish, 49, have made it no secret that they want to have another child, and may start trying to father a sibling for Zachary this summer.
However, in an interview, Sir Elton confessed: ‘It’s going to be heartbreaking for him to grow up and realise he hasn’t got a mummy. But he’s so happy. I’ve never seen a more contented child. ‘And you have never seen two more contented people as David and I.’ Talking about boosting their family, the singer said: ‘I’d love to have more children.
‘I want Zachary to have a brother or a sister to go to school with him, and so that he can have someone to play with.’ Speaking earlier this year, Mr Furnish, a former advertising executive turned filmmaker, said: ‘I would like Zachary to have a sibling.’
Mr Furnish was by Sir Elton’s side as they showed off Zachary at their annual Oscars party in February, when the little boy wore his own monogrammed Yves Saint Laurent jacket and was surrounded by stars.
Mr Furnish admitted: ‘I think he would be better with a sibling than on his own. It’s something we talk about all the time. But in terms of when, where and how, nothing’s decided yet. ‘I think we are going to wait till this summer. Our life is always like a treadmill, with Elton constantly working and touring. ‘But when we go away to our house in France, that’s when we sit back and go OK, how is this working, how are you feeling?’
The logistics had clearly been discussed, as Mr Furnish added: ‘We could go back to the same egg donor, so biologically there would certainly be a connection between brother and brother or brother and sister.’ And he confirmed that he and Sir Elton would probably again both donate sperm to fertilise the egg, ‘so we don’t know which one of us is the father’.
But the couple may have to seek another surrogate, Mr Furnish said. The unnamed woman who gave birth to Zachary ‘has been a surrogate before but has a life of her own and her own family,’ he added. ‘It’s a big commitment to make – nine months of their life that doesn’t just affect them but their children, their husband, their partner. ‘If we found a surrogate who is half as beautiful as our first, we would be very lucky.’
Meanwhile, Sir Elton admitted during his interview with Matt Lauer on the NBC Today show that he ‘wasted’ much of his life on drugs. The singer also admitted that he felt like the ‘luckiest man in the world’ to survive his drug addiction at a time when people were dying of AIDS. He said: ‘I wasted such a big part of my life, when this epidemic was beginning to happen in the early 1980s.
‘I was a drug addict and self-absorbed. I was having people die right, left, and centre around me, friends. And yet I didn’t stop. I was consumed by cocaine, booze and who knows what else.’ He added: ‘When you take a drug and you take a drink and you mix those two together, you think you’re invincible. I came out of this HIV-negative. I was the luckiest man in the world.’
The interview also discussed when Sir Elton came out as gay, and he recalled a period when ‘people burned my records and radio stations didn’t play me’.
Article: 15th July 2012 www.dailymail.co.uk
Pride Angel endorses using known egg donors in order for the donor-conceived to be able to know of their 'mother' from an early age. Often this relationship is often purely an understanding of their origins, but can make a big difference to the well-being of the children. To find out more about known egg donors click here.
Read more about gay families and surrogacy at www.prideangel.com