Elton John’s ex-wife demands £3m in High Court battle raging over claims he broke divorce terms

Sir Elton John’s ex-wife is suing him for £3million amid claims he broke terms of their divorce by mentioning their marriage in his autobiography.

The Your Song singer married Renate Blauel in 1984, but they split up in 1988, in a divorce that is thought to have ended with Ms Blauel leaving with a settlement of between £5million and £10million. 

According to The Sun, Ms Blauel, 67, filed documents with the High Court claiming the 73-year-old broke terms of their divorce and triggered existing mental health problems when he mentioned their marriage in his autobiography, Me.

Renate Blauel, pictured on her wedding day to Sir Elton John in 1984, is suing him ex for £3million, claiming he broke the terms of their divorce by mentioning their marriage in his autobiography 

The paper also claims the German – born sound engineer sought an injunction over the release of the acclaimed 2019 biopic, Rocketman. 

Court papers claim Sir Elton had agreed to remove parts of his autobiography before it was published last year.

However in one part of Me, he expressed regret at ‘breaking the heart,’ of his ex-wife, whom he met while working on his 1983 album, Too Low for Zero. 

Sir Elton wrote in his autobiography, Me, that he regretted ‘breaking the heart,’ of German sound engineer Renate

Sir Elton married Renate in February 1984, having met the year before while working on an album

A source told The Sun: ‘Elton is shocked and saddened by Renate’s claim, especially as he has only ever praised her publicly.’  

Another added: ‘He has always had a very pleasant relationship with Renate, respects her enormously and would never have said anything revealing about their marriage.’

It’s understood Sir Elton had not been aware of her long-standing health problems.  

It’s understood Ms Blauel filed an injunction to do with the release of the film Rocketman (above) in which she was depicted by Celinde Schoenmaker

A friend told the paper: ‘He very much hopes she will see sense and drop this case.’

In 2005 Sir Elton entered a civil partnership with David Furnish, the couple were formally married in 2014, when same-sex marriage became legal in England and Wales. 

The couple have two sons. 

Ms Blauel moved to Germany in 2001 having sold up in Surrey, and she is also understood to have bought a town house in London with her new partner. But other than that, she has simply gone to ground. Until now.

The friend explains her thinking behind this new legal move: ‘She didn’t see the book before publication. She got wind of it and said: “Make sure, please, that I am not in it”. She didn’t want to be made to look a fool.

‘As far as I am aware she sent warnings about the book. Maybe they never got shown to Elton, but the book came out and she was in it, and so here we are.’