Elton Says 'I Don't' to Marriage Reports

By Stephen M. Silverman

Wednesday March 03, 2004 06:12 PM EST

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Yahoo Buzz
• E-mail

Don't hold your breath for an invite to Elton John's wedding: It's not happening.

The Rocket Man is denying reports that he is planning to marry his longtime partner, David Furnish, just as soon as British Parliament makes same-sex marriages legal in the country.

"David and I are in favor of gay marriage but have no plans to get married," John, 56, said in a statement Tuesday.

The clarification comes after Wednesday's New York Daily News quoted John as saying he and Furnish, his lover for the past 11 years, were planning to tie the knot. Over the past month, gay weddings have been taking place in San Francisco and in the New York town of New Paltz -- turning it into a hot political issue and prompting President Bush to endorse a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage.

In New York, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who expressed his personal opinion that he is in favor of gay marriage, said that current New York State law makes same-sex marriages illegal but that a court must now decide if the law is constitutional. The movement has also taken hold in Oregon, where 400 same-sex marriage licenses have been taken out, according to published reports.

Meanwhile, just last week, Rosie O'Donnell and longtime partner Kelli Carpenter became the first celeb couple to wed in San Francisco under Mayor Gavin Newsom's pledge to allow same-sex marriages.

"I was on the fence about it for a while," John purportedly told the Daily News. "I've been married before (he wed Renate Blauel in Sydney, Australia, in 1984). I thought, 'Why would I want to get married again?'"

That union ended in divorce in 1988, but the News quoted John as saying he supports the idea of gay marriage -- perhaps even for himself.

"I'm totally for it," John says. "In this day and age, if people who want to make a life commitment can't have protection, then we live in a pretty sick world."

He added: "We're definitely going to do it when it gets passed. ... I would like to commit myself to David. I already have in my mind anyway."

Besides being John's life partner, Furnish, 40, is the star's business partner and the maker of the film "Tantrums and Tiaras," described by the News as a hilarious documentary on what life with is like with Elton.