Elton John’s Ex-Fiancee ‘Disappointed’ to Be Left Out of ‘Rocketman’
The woman believed to have been the inspiration for early Elton John classic “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” said she was “disappointed” not to have appeared in the upcoming movie Rocketman.
Linda Hannon – then called Woodrow – was engaged to be married to John after a two-year relationship that ended suddenly in 1970, when he came home late at night and told her it was over. Months later he scored his first hit with “Your Song,” and went on to record “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” five years later.
“I am very happy for him,” Hannon said in a recent interview on U.K. TV show Good Morning Britain, embedded below. “I never actually believed he would become such a superstar as he is. ... I would like to [hear from him]… I don’t know what I would say to him but I’d like to see him. ... There’s no resentment and there’s certainly no bitterness. It would be a joyous meeting if we did meet, I’m sure.”
It’s been recounted in the past that she and John had got to close to marriage that he was out with lyricist Bernie Taupin and early mentor Long John Baldry when he was persuaded not to go through with the plans. At the time, John, Taupin and Hannon were sharing an apartment as the budding songwriters were too poor to do anything else. “I was going to get married once when I was younger, and I went out and got drunk … and John said I shouldn't get married,” John said in 1991. “I knew he was right but I didn't know how to get out of it so, I just got drunk and went home and said, ‘I’m not getting married’.”
“I was in love and I think he was too,” said Hannon, who moved from the U.K. to Texas after the split and eventually had three children. “The relationship was going smooth. Everything was going very quickly… We went and we found a flat in Mill Hill [in London]. We bought furniture for it. I went off to the antique store and bought myself an engagement ring because neither he or Bernie [Taupin] had any money, so I was kind of having to support them. His mother had ordered the wedding cake, and it’s true what the song says – he did come back at four o’clock in the morning and tell me that it was over. ... And that was the last time I've actually ever seen Reg.”
She admitted she’d been “devastated” at the time, but that she’d moved on a long time ago. While her relationship with the pre-fame Reginald Dwight doesn’t appear in Rocketman, his four-year marriage to Renata Blauel, which ended in 1988 when he came out as gay, does. “[I]t was a long time ago and he’s such a superstar now," she said. "I was way, way back in his past. I hope he hasn’t forgotten about me… I was disappointed I’m not in the movie.”