Canadian celebrity consort, philanthropist and filmmaker David Furnish was BOTD in 1962. Born in Toronto to a wealthy middle-class family, he studied business at the University of Western Ontario, developing a successful career in advertising. He began a relationship with singer-songwriter Elton John in 2003, becoming an overnight celebrity when the news was made public. In 1997, Furnish co-directed and appeared in the documentary Elton John: Tantrums and Tiaras, a fascinating, warts-and-all documentary about his life with John, focusing on John’s 1995 tour of Rio de Janeiro and featuring several apparently unscripted scenes of the singer’s foul temper and diva-like behaviour. He has collaborated on a number of John’s projects, co-producing John’s musical adaptation of the film Billy Elliot, serving on the board of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, and co-curating the Sir Elton John David Furnish Collection, one of the largest private photography collections in the world. He has also produced documentaries about diplomat Kofi Annan, the Gucci and Versace fashion houses, the romantic comedy film It’s a Boy Girl Thing and the animated comedy film Gnomeo & Juliet. He and John entered into a civil partnership in England in 2005, upgrading to marriage in 2014. In January 2016, Furnish sought an anonymised privacy injunction in the High Court of England & Wales (referred to as “PJS”) to prevent The Sun on Sunday from publishing a story about his extra-marital sexual encounter with two men. The court declined the application, on the basis that publication of the story was in the public interest, as it would correct a false image of marital commitment that PJS had presented. Furnish’s lawyers unsuccessfully appealed the case to the UK Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, losing each time. While media in England and Wales were prevented from identifying Furnish until the Supreme Court decision was released, overseas media had already identified him as PJS, sparking a public debate about the effectiveness of legal injunctions in the age of the Internet and social media. To date, neither Furnish nor John have commented publicly on the case or the alleged sexual encounters. Furnish’s most recent film, the documentary Elton John: Never Too Late, co-directed with RJ Cutler, was released in 2024. He and John have two sons together, conceived via a surrogate mother.