New €588k Beeb boss is appointed
When Elton heard about her plight, he didn’t hesitate to help out
Linda left Sheffield and found a flat in North London.
Elton and Bernie both moved in but when they got engaged, they got their own flat.
Linda said: “We were weeks from getting married, we had new furniture and a flat in Mill Hill, North London. His mother had gone and ordered the cake.”
But Elton’s stag do with Bernie and blues singer Long John
Baldry spelled the end of their relationship.
The pair got Elton “roaring drunk” and told him to call it off, saying he was going to ruin two lives – his own and Linda’s.
It came just months before he scored a smash hit with Your Song in 1970.
And in 1975, Elton released single Someone Saved My Life Tonight, about their break-up.
Bernie’s lyrics include the line: “You almost had your hooks in me, didn’t you dear? You nearly had me roped and tied, altarbound, hypnotised.”
Despite the blow, Linda brushed herself down and got on with her life.
She said: “I’ve never felt bitter towards him other than in the immediate aftermath. You kind of get over things and I am so happy he has found his true love in David [Furnish] and he has his boys.”
Elton went on to wed Renate Blauel in 1984 but they divorced in 1988, when he came out as gay. Linda said: “I knew when he was a virgin but it never crossed my mind he was gay.”
In 2014, Elton converted his long-term civil partnership with David Furnish into a marriage and they have kids Zachary, nine, and Elijah, seven.
Nine months after her split with Elton, Linda wed James Bowens – but they split soon after as she admits she was still in love with the singer.
She then wed Tony, the father of her sons
James, Oliver and Alex, before divorcing and meeting and marrying William Hannon.
She moved to America as William was in the US military, but they sadly split too.
Linda said: “I have been on my own for almost 20 years and have three sons. I have never really met anyone that I kind of clicked with.”
The closest Linda has ever got to seeing Elton again was at a concert in Dallas.
She said: “I got quite choked when he walked on stage as I hadn’t seen him for such a long time. It was a wonderful concert, I really enjoyed it.”
And despite the way things ended, Linda still remembers the good times as Elton and Bernie chased their dreams.
She said: “We used to go to the recording studio at night and listen to him rehearse.
“It was a very nice, loving relationship.
“I got on very well with his mum Sheila and his stepfather, and used to stay with them.
“I didn’t know he and his mum had fallen out, they were very close when I was with him.
“I was so happy to hear they did reconcile before she passed.”
Tim Davie
SENIOR BBC executive Tim Davie has been named the next director general.
He has been promoted from CEO of BBC Studios, the commercial arm that makes and sells shows.
But he will take a pay cut when he replaces Tony Hall in the top role on September 1.
Davie will earn €588,000 a year when he takes over, down from the €672,000 he earned in 2018/19.
He has also agreed to be paid the same as Lord Hall – €505,000 – until August 2021.
The appointment will worry some as Davie was deputy chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Tory party, in West London, in the Nineties.
He also stood as a councillor in 1993 and 1994.
One of Davie’s top priorities will be negotiating the future of the licence fee with the UK Government.
The current TV licence system will stay in place until at least 2027.
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