Harry And Meghan’s Emotional Message For Elton John Shows How Special Their Bond Really Is

John’s farewell concert, his last public performance in North America, was a chance for all his fans, friends and fellow celebrities to say to camera what the man and his music meant to them. The whole thing was live-streamed on Disney Plus as well, so anyone who’d ever loved the renowned musician got their chance to watch him take his final bow.

Meghan spoke first on her and Harry’s video message to the star. “Hi Elton, we just want to say congratulations,” she said. “And we are just so proud of you. We’re so grateful that we were able to see you on your farewell tour also.” Meghan’s become very close with John over the years, as well as with his husband David Furnish.

In fact, Meghan and Furnish actually teamed up as executive producers to make an animated Netflix show recently. Although the project, called Pearl, fell through in the end, the two clearly got along very well. Speaking to Hello! magazine at their Inspiration Awards in 2021, before the show was canceled, Furnish described Meghan as “a fantastic collaborator, amazing leader.”

After Meghan spoke, her husband Harry said direct to John, “Thank you for entertaining everybody for so many decades. Thank you for being the friend that you were for my mum, [Princess Diana], thank you for being our friend.” You may have known already that John and Diana were friends — but perhaps you didn’t know how deep their relationship ran.

John actually wrote about Diana in his 2019 autobiography Me. He remembered meeting her, writing “That night in 1981 she arrived in the ballroom and we immediately clicked. We ended up pretending to dance the Charleston while hooting at the disco’s feebleness.” He also noted that she was “blessed with an incredible social ease, an ability to make people feel totally comfortable in her company.”

And as Harry and Meghan know, after that first meeting John and Diana became great friends, having all sorts of adventures together. The musician remembered in his autobiography that he once had to rescue her from the attentions of both Richard Gere and Sylvester Stallone, because straight men “seemed completely to lose their minds in her presence: they were just utterly bewitched.”

And thanks to the friendship with Diana, John knew Harry straight from childhood. He wrote in a 2018 piece for Time magazine, hailing the young prince as one of the year’s most influential people, “I first met an extremely shy and sweet Prince Harry at a private lunch at Kensington Palace, given by his mother Princess Diana for Gianni Versace and me many years ago.”

John went on, “What a joy it has been to see that young boy grow to inherit his mother’s warmth, sense of humor and courage to stand up and champion the causes he truly believes in. Harry and I have bonded over a passionate desire to end the global AIDS epidemic, a disease for which his mother did so much important early work to fight stigma and build awareness.”

And John also described Harry in much the same way he’d once described Diana. He said in the Time piece, “Prince Harry has that rare ability to walk into a room full of strangers and make everyone feel comfortable and at ease.” The two of them were clearly very good friends — and the music icon even performed at Harry and Meghan’s wedding.

According to insiders, Harry introduced him by quipping “Does anyone here know how to play the piano?” John then played some of his most well-known songs, including “Your Song” and “Tiny Dancer.” There was no point keeping all that a secret — afterwards, the palace released a statement saying “Sir Elton performed for the newly married couple in recognition of the close connection he has with Prince Harry and his family.”

Of course, Harry and Meghan didn’t mention it in their video message, but that close connection came dangerously close to being severed back in 1997. John was creating a book with Gianni Versace, Rock and Royalty, and he wanted Diana to be involved. But, he’s always claimed, the princess’ precarious situation within the royal family made her nervous about doing it.

Diana was supposed to write the book’s foreword, but things went wrong and she pulled out of the project. John wrote in his autobiography, “She got cold feet. I think Buckingham Palace didn't like the idea of a member of the royal family having anything to do with a book that featured shots of naked guys with towels draped around them.”

John was not happy about it, especially since sales of the book would have raised money for the AIDS Foundation. He recollected in his autobiography, “I wrote back to her, calling her out, telling her how much money she had cost the AIDS Foundation, and reminding her that she had seen the book.” He was also concerned by how much he was losing her to royal life.

John wrote in Me that primarily he had been worried about Diana’s state of mind, believing she was “losing touch with all sorts of really close friends,” and “surrounding herself instead with people who told her what she wanted to hear.” He added: “I knew from personal experience that wasn't a healthy situation.”

All the same — and bear in mind that without this, as an adult Harry might never have been friends with the musician at all — John and Diana were able to make up. The tragic murder of their mutual friend Gianni Versace brought them back together. In 2018 the music legend said on TV show Lorraine, “Gianni Versace was murdered, and then Diana rang me up and we reconciled.”

According to John, both of them had been “too proud” to do so before. He told CNN in 2002, “It was only really when Gianni Versace was murdered that we both got on the phone to each other and said, ‘This is so stupid. We haven’t talked,’ you know. It’s one of those things that friends sometimes do… they’re too proud to pick up the phone.”

But shortly after that Diana herself died, killed in a car crash that shocked the whole world. That meant John had lost two friends in just under two months. He said on Lorraine, “Six weeks later, I’m in the same house, and she’s dead. It was an extraordinary and mesmerizing summer, and I just couldn’t believe what was going on.”

You may have seen footage of John performing a partially-rewritten “Candle in the Wind” at Diana’s funeral — but that almost didn’t happen. Allegedly, the Palace pushed back on the musician appearing at the funeral, although it wasn’t anything to do with him as a person, just the song. According to official documents that weren’t uncovered for decades, the palace thought the tune was “too sentimental.”

But John got to perform “Candle in the Wind” anyway, and ensured it was forever associated with Diana. And Harry was always grateful the music icon got to sing it. He said in the 2017 documentary Diana, 7 Days that he found the performance “incredibly emotional,” and it “nearly brought me to the point of crying in public, which I didn’t do.”

In the years since, Harry has teamed up with John to do the AIDS-related work that was so near and dear to Diana’s heart. In July 2018 the two launched an initiative designed to prevent HIV transmission in men. Making a speech announcing it, Harry said, “I am honored to be sharing the stage with someone who has always put people at the center of his work, Sir Elton John.”

The two men are so close now that, allegedly, John knew before Elizabeth did that Harry and Meghan were planning to step down from active royal duties. British newspaper the Daily Mirror dropped an exclusive report in January 2020 claiming, “The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been speaking to the showbiz legend — a pal of Harry’s mum Diana — every day for months.”

According to an insider who spoke to the publication, “Elton speaks to Harry and Meghan every day. He’s an inspiration, an almost ‘motherly’ figure. They made their decision alone, but he’s a shoulder to lean on and listened as they spoke about their plans.” The anonymous source went on to describe John as “protective” and a “constant support,” in particular for Meghan.

John has indeed come out in support of Meghan and Harry when they experienced backlash from the media. The pair were heavily criticized for using a private jet to visit the musician’s house in Nice with their son, so the performer took to social media to state his anger at the situation, and in doing so he invoked his famous friendship with Diana.

John wrote, “I am deeply distressed by today’s distorted and malicious account in the press surrounding the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s private stay at my home in Nice last week. Prince Harry’s mother, Diana, Princess Of Wales was one of my dearest friends. I feel a profound sense of obligation to protect Harry and his family from the unnecessary press intrusion that contributed to Diana’s untimely death.”

He went on, “After a hectic year continuing their hard work and dedication to charity, David and I wanted the young family to have a private holiday inside the safety and tranquility of our home. To maintain a high level of much-needed protection, we provided them with a private jet flight. To support Prince Harry’s commitment to the environment, we ensured their flight was carbon-neutral.”

John concluded, “I highly respect and applaud both Harry and Meghan’s commitment to charity and I’m calling on the press to cease these relentless and untrue assassinations on their character that are spuriously crafted on an almost daily basis.” Those were strong words, but perhaps not unexpected ones from someone who had witnessed so much of the fallout from Diana’s death.

It’s clear that the relationship between John and Harry is a very strong one, with both families closely entwined now. So it’s hard not to be touched by Harry’s last words to him on the video, “Thank you for being a friend to our kids and thank you for entertaining people right around the world. Even though this is officially your retirement, this will not be your last gig, we know that. But we love you and congratulations on an incredible career.”

And Harry and Meghan weren’t the only ones who had warm messages for John about how he’d touched their lives. David Beckham also showed up to tell the singer, “What an incredible, incredible career. We are so proud we can call you our friend and the godfather of our children,” while his wife Victoria said, “We love you so much. I'm sure tonight will be a super-emotional night.”

A massive array of superstars, in fact, recorded messages for John. They included Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Lil Nas X and Miley Cyrus among many others. The musician probably treasures all those messages very highly, but perhaps he appreciates Harry and Meghan’s most of all, since it’s a reminder of a good friend who unfortunately didn’t live to see his farewell concert.