Elton John, 77, has had a rollercoaster love life, from divorcing his ex-wife Renate Blauel in 1988 and coming out as gay to getting sober before marrying David Furnish, 62.
Now, the 'Tiny Dancer' singer has opened up about his three-decade relationship with the Canadian filmmaker, with whom he registered a civil partnership in 2005 before marrying in a small ceremony at their Windsor home in 2014 when same-sex marriage became legal in Britain.
Elton admitted in an interview with Attitude that his husband is "very good at confrontation" while he was "terrified" of it. Speaking of their successful relationship, he explained: "I think it is all about dialogue. I was never very good at communicating. I was terrified [of] confrontation.
"David’s very good at confrontation and telling me what he thinks, and we’ve done a lot of therapy."
Getting sober
Both Elton and David have got sober, which the 'Rocket Man' hitmaker said was "hard" in their relationship.
"David got sober during our relationship," added Elton, who shares sons Zachary and Elijah with David. "That was hard for him, and it was hard for me, but it was a necessary thing to do because it moved us on.
"As a rule, we don’t go to bed on an argument. If one of us is in a bad mood, we’ll say, ‘What’s wrong?’ We don’t go, ‘Oh, I don’t want to talk about it now – talk in the morning'.
"We never do that otherwise you can’t sleep all night, then you wake up in the morning, you think, ‘Oh God, what’s it all about?'"
On the subject of his own sobriety, he described himself as a "hostage taker" in former relationships.
He reflected: "I made a lot of people very unhappy, and so I had to change that. Sobriety helped me so much because you have to address your faults and you have to come clean about what your secrets are."
Marriage secrets
While they have both admitted they have navigated ups and downs in their relationship, David revealed that the secret to their happy marriage is weekly love letters, even when they're long-distance due to Elton's work schedule.
Highlighting the importance of communication, he told R&B artist 6LACK in his series Can I Ask You A Question About Love?. "Every Saturday we gave each other an anniversary card, because we met on a Saturday," he said.
"We go through difficulties as much as anybody else does in a relationship, but we sort through it by communication. And one way of communicating is writing down on a piece of paper or a card how you're feeling."
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