Elton John’s Canadian husband David Furnish in tabloid sex tale

Editor’s Note: This blog is not bound by the injunction in England and Wales.

UPDATE: The UK Supreme Court has ruled to uphold the injunction.

UPDATE: On April 18, Court of Appeal judges ruled that the injunction in England and Wales will be lifted on Wednesday, April 20, pending an appeal by Elton John and David Furnish.

Pop Goes The News — Do Elton John and his Canadian husband David Furnish have an open relationship — or has Furnish been cheating on the music icon?

The front page of the April 18 edition of the National Enquirer, now on newsstands, declares: “Elton John Betrayed by Cheating Husband!”

But, only three paragraphs into its three-page article, the tabloid reports that lawyers for Elton John said Furnish did not have an affair because the singer knew about the relationship.

The Enquirer‘s sister publication, Star, published a nearly identical story in its April 18 edition.

Elton was able to block publication of the exposé in Britain, where there are stricter privacy laws. (The court-ordered injunction does not apply outside England and Wales but reps for Elton and Furnish are going to great lengths to threaten media outlets — including Pop Goes The News.)

MORE: Elton John, David Furnish hope to keep sex tale off Web

The Enquirer and Star report U.K. businessman Daniel Laurence claims he had three encounters with Furnish, including one that involved “risky sex.”

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According to Laurence, on at least two occasions Furnish demanded — and had — unprotected sex with him. (Elton John’s lawyers denied Furnish had unprotected sex with Laurence, the Enquirer reports.)

The unprotected sex allegation is particularly damaging because Furnish helps run his husband’s eponymous AIDS Foundation.

Laurence also alleges that Furnish joined he and husband Pieter Van den Bergh for a threesome.

Elton, 69, and Toronto-born Furnish, 53, have been together for 23 years and were married in December 2014. The couple has two sons, Zachary, 5, and Elijah, 3, from a surrogate.

MORE: Elton John debuts made-in-Quebec video

According to the Enquirer, Furnish and Laurence began exchanging messages online in 2008 and hooked up in March 2009 at the Mayfair Hotel in London.

Furnish “wanted me to penetrate him and was very demanding and specific about this,” Laurence said in an affidavit obtained by the tabloid. “We did have unprotected sex.”

The two men continued to communicate online — and saw each other again at an event in Palm Springs — but did not have sex again until April 2010. Laurence alleges the tryst took place in the London home Furnish shares with Elton John.

The Enquirer published a Facebook chat it claims is between Furnish and Laurence. In it, Furnish asks Laurence about having a threesome.

“I am getting hard thinking about it,” Furnish allegedly wrote.

“I have to be sooooooo careful.”

The threesome, which allegedly took place at the home of Laurence and Van den Bergh in December 2011, involved wrestling in a pool of olive oil.

Laurence also alleged that Furnish was “into being tied up and dominated.”

MORE: Robert Herjavec has a kinky side, ex-girlfriend claims

Laurence, who claims to have been introduced to Elton John at a party, took a job at Furnish’s production company Rocket Pictures. Laurence resigned in late 2014 after three years.

The Enquirer article comes only days after news that Elton John is facing a sexual harassment lawsuit from a former bodyguard. Jeffrey Wenninger alleges the singer groped him and encouraged him to show his penis.

Elton’s lawyer Orin Snyder has described the claims of “a disgruntled former security officer seeking to extract an undeserved payment” as “patently untrue.”

The story also resulted in a controversial tweet from a group called Fathers4Justice.

Furnish was born and raised in Toronto and graduated from the University of Western Ontario.

He was a co-producer of the 2011 made-in-Toronto animated film Gnomeo & Juliet and the Toronto-shot 2006 comedy It’s a Boy Girl Thing.

Furnish was also an executive producer of the CTV series Spectacle: Elvis Costello with… and the stage show Billy Elliott: The Musical.

Late last year, Furnish shared a photo of the couple’s sons during a visit to his parents in Canada.

Laurence, 41, and Van den Bergh, 31, are registered as directors of Eduflix Ltd. and Snapfits Ltd., two companies based in Birmingham, England.

MORE: Quebec teen appears nude with author Edmund White

The British media is not pleased with the publication ban.

“Man who took part in celebrity threesome says cheat ‘is using children as protection,'” reads a headline in the Daily Mail. The newspaper declared: “Draconian privacy injunction means he cannot be named in British media.”

The Mail argued that Elton and his husband “have posted dozens of pictures of their children on social media and have given a number of magazine and television interviews about them and their joy at becoming parents.”

The Sun, which plans to challenge the ruling, posted an article with the headline: “Gag celeb splashed in paddling pool full of olive oil and it wasn’t extra virgin.”

“Despite the figure and their spouse being named in the US, a bizarre Court of Appeal ruling stops them being identified in this country,” The Sun reported.

“Speculation about the names is easily accessible on the internet and analysis for The Sun estimates ten million users have seen it.”

Many people have reacted on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/tonyruddick/status/718177304195829760

The British press has taken new interest in the marriage of Elton John and Furnish in the last year.

There have been reports that Furnish bought a luxury apartment in South London for personal trainer Danny Williams and the two have gone on vacations together.

Furnish is regularly photographed at parties and aboard yachts with a bevy of muscular male friends.

According to a report in the Sun last year, Furnish is “behaving like a control-freak, exercising an increasing influence over the music legend.”

Earlier this month, Furnish slammed the Daily Mail for an article claiming he insisted he should have an official title because his husband is a “Sir.”

On Instagram, Furnish called the article “a total misrepresentation” and said “at no point did I ever say that I personally wanted or deserved any title.”


This post has been updated since it was first published.