Elton John & Renate Blauel: The Marriage That Ended When the Truth Came Out
He married her to try being straight. Four years later he came out as gay. Thirty years later she sued him for talking about it.
Key Facts
What Happened
Elton John married German sound engineer Renate Blauel on February 14, 1984, in Sydney, Australia. The wedding surprised the music world — John had publicly identified as bisexual since 1976, and many in his inner circle doubted the marriage. Nevertheless, Blauel was a respected professional who had worked on John's albums, and the couple appeared genuinely committed to making it work. The wedding at St. Mark's Anglican Church was a lavish affair attended by industry luminaries.
The marriage lasted four years. John later acknowledged that he had married Blauel in an attempt to live a conventional heterosexual life, something he described as deeply unfair to her. They divorced in 1988, and John came out publicly as gay shortly afterward. The divorce settlement included approximately £5 million and a $600,000 country home in Surrey, where Blauel lived until 2000. A crucial component of the settlement was a confidentiality clause: neither party was to discuss the marriage publicly.
The confidentiality clause became the center of a legal dispute over 30 years later. In 2020, Blauel filed a £3 million ($3.8 million) lawsuit against John, claiming that his 2019 autobiography 'Me' and the biopic film 'Rocketman' violated the confidentiality agreement by discussing their marriage. The suit alleged that the public revelations had caused her 'overwhelming grief, sadness, and distress' and had destroyed the quiet, private life she had built since the divorce. The case was settled out of court in October 2020 for an undisclosed sum.
The Elton John-Blauel case raises unique questions about privacy, sexual identity, and the evolving nature of divorce settlements. When the confidentiality clause was written in 1988, neither party anticipated that John would become one of the world's most famous openly gay men, or that his autobiography and a major Hollywood film would revisit the marriage decades later. The case demonstrates that confidentiality clauses in divorce settlements must be drafted with extraordinary care to account for future contingencies.
Legal Breakdown: Privacy in Divorce
Confidentiality Clauses in Divorce
The 1988 settlement included a mutual confidentiality clause preventing either party from discussing the marriage. Such clauses are common in celebrity divorces but must be carefully drafted. Elton John's autobiography arguably violated the clause by discussing the marriage, even sympathetically. The 2020 settlement shows these clauses remain enforceable decades later.
LGBTQ+ Divorce Considerations
John married Blauel while struggling with his sexual identity, a situation that was more common in the 1980s when societal pressure to be heterosexual was immense. Today, marriages entered into under similar circumstances may be subject to annulment rather than divorce in some jurisdictions, as the argument can be made that genuine consent was impossible when one party was concealing their orientation.
Settlement Longevity and Changed Circumstances
A divorce settlement from 1988 remained legally enforceable in 2020 — over 30 years later. This highlights the importance of treating every clause in a divorce agreement as potentially permanent. Confidentiality provisions, non-disparagement clauses, and other behavioral restrictions can bind you for life unless they include specific expiration dates or modification provisions.
What This Means for Your Divorce
- →Confidentiality clauses in divorce settlements can be enforced decades later. Treat every provision as permanent unless it includes an explicit expiration date.
- →If you're entering a marriage while questioning your sexual identity, be honest with yourself and your partner. Marriages built on concealment cause lasting harm to everyone involved.
- →Autobiographies, interviews, and films about your life can violate divorce confidentiality agreements. Consult your attorney before publishing or participating in any media that discusses a prior marriage.
- →Privacy has real monetary value. Blauel's quiet life was worth protecting, and the law recognized that even 30 years after the divorce.
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This article is based on publicly available court records, news reports, and legal analysis. It is provided for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is created by reading this content.
Divorce laws vary by jurisdiction. Always consult a licensed attorney in your area before making legal decisions.