Has Sir Elton John forgiven designers Dolce and Gabbana for their comments about IVF children, or was he being sarcastic?
The singer – who has two sons with husband David Furnish conceived through IVF – told the audience at his Las Vegas residency show on Wednesday night that he loves the Italian design duo.
In a video posted on TMZ.com, Elton can be heard listing the names of famous people around the world who he admires, including Nelson Mandela and Princess Diana.
He then says: “In Italy, Dolce and Gabbana,” prompting a laugh from the crowd, followed by a light symbol clash. Elton added: “Listen, the band have been wearing Dolce and Gabbana, I love Dolce and Gabbana clothes.”
Elton was pictured earlier this week carrying a Dolce and Gabbana carrier bag, but his representatives said he was just using it to carry his lunch.
Business partners Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who are both gay and were formerly a couple, have previously voiced their rejection of same-sex marriage, but in an interview with an Italian magazine this weekend the remarks were extended to an objection to gay families.
Dolce told Panorama: “…what I call children of chemistry don’t convince me, synthetic children. Wombs for hire, (are a) choice from a catalogue. And then you have to explain to this child who is the mother. To procreate ought to be an act of love, today not even psychiatrists are ready to confront the effects of these experiments.”
Elton hit back by demanding a boycott of the designers’ clothes.
In a post to his Instagram he said: “How dare you refer to my beautiful children as ‘synthetic’.
“I shall never wear Dolce and Gabbana ever again. #BoycottDolceGabbana.”
Responding to the boycott calls, Gabbana later said in a statement that “it was never our intention to judge other people’s choices. We do believe in freedom and love.”
Gabbana also shared Elton’s post on his Instagram, replying: “This is ️the real respect for a different opinion????”
Many stars have spoken out to support Elton and condemn Dolce and Gabbana’s comments.
Madonna posted a picture of herself modelling for the designers and wrote: “All babies contain a soul however they come to this earth and their families. There is nothing synthetic about a soul!! So how can we dismiss IVF and surrogacy?”
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