News | Entertainment
7 Jul 2025 9:44
NZCity News
NZCity CalculatorReturn to NZCity

  • Start Page
  • Personalise
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • Finance
  • Shopping
  • Jobs
  • Horoscopes
  • Lotto Results
  • Photo Gallery
  • Site Gallery
  • TVNow
  • Dating
  • SearchNZ
  • NZSearch
  • Crime.co.nz
  • RugbyLeague
  • Make Home
  • About NZCity
  • Contact NZCity
  • Your Privacy
  • Advertising
  • Login
  • Join for Free

  •   Home > News > Entertainment

    Sir Elton John had no self-esteem as an adult because of the way he was treated as a child in the 1950s

    The 74-year-old pop legend - who was born in 1947 - has opened up about what it was like to grow up in England during that decade at a time when schools still used corporal punishment to discipline pupils


    He said: "The self-loathing, not having any self-esteem, that all comes from when I was a kid. That’s the way it was in the 50s – you got slapped round the face, you got a good hiding. ‘It was bloody good for you’ – it wasn’t good for me. It left me walking on eggshells.”

    The 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' singer later struggled with addiction as he was topping the charts around the world with his music, but he has admitted he was too afraid to open up about his trauma and the reasons for his substance abuse until getting sober.

    In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, he shared: "All my life, until I became sober, I was afraid of talking to anybody. They asked me when I went to treatment how I felt and I said, ‘I don’t know, I don’t feel anything.’ I came to defrost, as it were, and discovered I did have feelings, and they went back a long time. And I think it stays with you for the whole of your life … I just have terrible feelings about myself; I feel bad about myself sometimes."

    Elton later spoke of how he has used his life experiences to reach out and help fellow pop star Olly Alexander, who he performed 'It's a Sin' with at the 2021 BRIT Awards.

    The 'Starstruck' singer - AKA Years & Years - was enduring a period of depression when Elton came to his aid.

    Elton said: "Olly [Alexander] was down in the dumps recently, and I just said, 'Go out, have fun! Sit there alone, and that ball comes down like in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' - an avalanche of bad feeling.”

    © 2025 Bang Showbiz, NZCity

     Other Entertainment News
     07 Jul: Keanu Reeves is thrilled to be fronting another Formula 1 docuseries - after he bagged an Emmy for a recent show on the motor racing event
     07 Jul: Raye finds "toxic" people "addictive"
     07 Jul: Lily Allen "can't remember" how many abortions she's had
     07 Jul: Kesha found her sudden rise to stardom to be "terrifying"
     07 Jul: AJ McLean and his estranged wife Rochelle have been "going out on dates here and there"
     07 Jul: Miley Cyrus says receiving a Hollywood Walk of Fame star "feels like a dream"
     07 Jul: Julie Bowen expected to be replaced by a "younger woman" in Happy Gilmore 2
     Top Stories

    RUGBY RUGBY
    A fuel saving two-stop gamble has paid off for Scott Dixon More...


    BUSINESS BUSINESS
    Our newsroom's revealed more than 200 people were able to enter New Zealand on work visas for defunct businesses later exposed as fronts for a network of cannabis grow houses in Auckland More...



     Today's News

    Entertainment:
    Keanu Reeves is thrilled to be fronting another Formula 1 docuseries - after he bagged an Emmy for a recent show on the motor racing event 9:36

    Law and Order:
    In Australia...Jurors will resume deliberations today in the mushroom trial after a Sunday break 9:27

    Entertainment:
    Raye finds "toxic" people "addictive" 9:06

    Living & Travel:
    Investigations are ongoing, after a Queensland woman lost her arm in a lion attack, at a local zoo 8:57

    Entertainment:
    Lily Allen "can't remember" how many abortions she's had 8:36

    Motoring:
    A fuel saving two-stop gamble has paid off for Scott Dixon 8:27

    Motorsports:
    To the latest Indy Car race in Ohio 8:07

    Entertainment:
    Kesha found her sudden rise to stardom to be "terrifying" 8:06

    Politics:
    A law expert says the court system is fixed by understanding facts - not mandatory sentences  7:57

    Education:
    Belief limited education pathways are contributing to a rise in unenrolled students 7:37


     News Search






    Power Search


    © 2025 New Zealand City Ltd