Elton to sell Mum’s home he bought at height of rift

Sir Elton John endured a sometimes fraught relationship with his mother, Sheila, who died last year aged 92. Now, i can disclose, the 71year-old superstar is bidding farewell to one of the most tangible links with her, putting on the market the house he bought for her in 2010, for £650,000, in a private estate on the Sussex coast.

With electric gates, a conservatory and separate summerhouse, the two-bedroom bungalow, between Brighton and Bognor, is being sold for £950,000.

it is a world away from the council house in Pinner, North-West London, where Sheila gave birth to Elton — or reggie, as the baby, her only child by her first marriage to RAF officer Stanley Dwight, was then known.

Sir Elton acquired the Sussex property the same year in which Sheila sold 40 of his platinum and gold discs, including the platinum album for 1973’s Goodbye Yellow Brick road. Together with other memorabilia, they fetched a modest £28,820.

it was a very public rebuke. Mother and son, above, had fallen out, according to Sheila, two years earlier after Sir Elton rang her to insist that she cease all contact with Bob Halley — successively Elton’s driver and personal assistant — and John reid, who had been Elton’s manager and, briefly, his lover. Sheila insisted she would remain friends with both men. Elton then had one of his famous tantrums. ‘He said he hated me,’ she recalled. ‘And then banged the phone down. imagine. To me, his mother.’

Sir Elton, who is worth £300 million, bought Sheila a pension and later paid £30,000 for her double hip replacement. As a peace offering he sent her a bouquet of white orchids on her 90th birthday in 2015, helping heal the bitter, eight-year rift.

When Sheila died Sir Elton posted a very personal tribute on instagram: ‘So sad to say that my mother passed away this morning. i only saw her last Monday and i am in shock. Travel safe, Mum.

‘Thank you for everything. i will miss you so much. Love, Elton.’