'We had to keep it a secret': Elton opens up on life as a dad
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Elton John, right, and his partner David Furnish, left, are shown with US talk show host Barbara Walters as she holds their son Zachary
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By Jennie Bannister
Friday Apr 22 2011
ELTON John and his partner David Furnish have spoken publicly for the first time about how fatherhood has changed them.
In their first sit down interview, with US talk show host Barbara Walters, the couple told why they wanted to have a child and how they kept the baby a huge secret until after the birth which changed their lives.
Elton John's baby boy Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John was born on Christmas Day last year by a surrogate mother in California.
The baby weighed seven pounds and 15 ounces at birth.
Reportedly, they got tips on surrogacy from actress Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband Matthew Broderick, who had twins in June of 2009 using her eggs and Broderick's sperm.
The child is the first for the couple, who in 2009 travelled to an orphanage in the Ukraine to try and adopt two young brothers.
Their application to adopt was declined by the Ukrainian authorities.
The couple introduced their four-and-a-half-month-old son to the talk show host as the singer also discussed details of his latest project.
Elton was in New York to attend the famous Tribeca Film Festival, where he performed ahead of the premiere of director Cameron Crowe's documentary on the collaboration between the singer and his idol Leon Russell.
Sessions
The outdoor screening was held just a stone's throw from where the World Trade Centre towers once stood.
The film, which is called 'The Union', documents the studio sessions between John (62) and the American singer songwriter.
"I am honoured and I am frightened," said John introducing the film he had as yet to see himself admitting the documentary was "Cameron Crowe's idea".
"When he found out I was doing a record with Leon and was trying to resurrect my own idol, he said 'How lovely, I want to be there to document it.' I said of course, because Cameron's a friend of mine and here we are two years later," said John.
- Jennie Bannister
Irish Independent
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