Hitmaker Elton John has opened up about his journey to fatherhood on Dua Lipa's new podcast from iHeartRadio, Dua Lipa: At Your Service. Discover the shocking reason he wasn't allowed to adopt a child from Ukraine and why that inspired him to start a family with David Furnish.
MORE: 10 rare photos of Elton John's children with husband David Furnish
Speaking on the podcast, the star revealed he was "never going to have children" until he visited an Orphanage in Ukraine. "I was carrying this little boy around for hours. We had a press conference at the end and they said 'You seem very fond of this little boy. Would you think of adopting him?' and I went 'I'd actually love to!'
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"Of course, not thinking about social media - it went around the world straight away. It was 'Elton John wants to adopt two children'."
Elton claims it was his sexuality that prohibited him from adopting the child. "Because I was gay I wasn't allowed to anyway," he revealed.
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Elton is now a father to two sons
"After that happened, David said 'Well, what do you think about having kids?' I always said no but this little boy was telling me something. He was saying 'c'mon you can be a dad' and that's when we decided to have children, because of this little boy in Ukraine."
Elton and David are now proud parents to two sons, Zachary, 11, and Elijah, nine.
The family enjoy lots of quality time together
The 75-year-old star is a doting dad and he has previously opened up about his plans to step back from performing to spend more with his children, telling NME: "I will do records and I'll do my radio show, but as far as schlepping and doing shows? I've had enough applause. I wanna be with my family. I wanna be with my boys."
Elton shares regular updates of the family on social media, including their jet-set holidays, as well as humble family life at home.
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