After downing a swig of whisky, Elton John hopped into a phone booth and dialled his mother’s phone number.
“I’m a homosexual,” he told her through tears.
“I know,” his mother Sheila Farebrother responded, before telling him to keep the news to himself.
“You’re choosing a life of being alone forever. You’ll never be loved properly.”
The relationship between Elton John and his mother is a theme that runs right through new film Rocketman.
Take a look at the trailer for Rocketman below. Post continues after video.
Throughout the movie, Sheila Farebrother (played by Bryce Dallas-Howard) appears to both despise and ignore her son (played by Taron Egerton) in equal measure.
And in reality, their relationship was much the same.
From his difficult childhood to long periods of estrangement, Elton John’s relationship with his mother has long been strained.
Although the pair struggled with their relationship in earlier years, it’s believed things began to turn for the worst at the civil partnership ceremony of John and his now-husband David Furnish in 2005.
According to The Sun, Farebrother was told she couldn’t appear in any of the photos at the event because she refused to wear a hat.
“That didn’t go down well with Furnish because he wanted it to be the Wedding of the Year,” she said.
