Elton John says he has ‘lost his eyesight’ and cannot watch musical he helped write

Musician suffered severe eye infection that left him with no vision in right eye

Sir Elton John says he could not watch a performance of The Devil Wears Prada:The Musical, which he wrote lyrics for, due to his failing eyesight.

The 77-year-old music icon revealed late last month that he had suffered a severe eye infection that left him with no vision in his right eye.

“I unfortunately lost my eyesight in my right eye in July because I had an infection in the South of France,” he said on Good Morning America on 25 November. “It’s been four months now since I haven’t been able to see. My left eye is not the greatest.”

At a charity gala performance of The Devil Wears Prada: The Musical for the Elton John AIDS Foundation on Sunday evening, Sir Elton said he had listened to the performance but not seen it.

“I have lost my sight and I haven’t been able to see the performance but I have enjoyed listening to it,” he told the BBC.

Speaking about his failing eyesight on stage, Sir Elton thanked his husband David Furnish who, he said, “has been my rock”.

“I haven’t been able to come to many of the previews because, as you know, I have lost my eyesight. So it’s hard for me to see it. But I love to hear it and boy it sounded good tonight,” he said.

Among those who attended the event was Anna Wintour, long rumoured to have been the inspiration behind Miranda Priestly, the steely magazine editor in The Devil Wears Prada.

“It is for the audience and for the people I work with to decide if there are any similarities between me and Miranda Priestly,” she said.

Anna Wintour attends ‘The Devil Wears Prada: The Musical’ world premiere in London on 1 December 2024 (Getty)

The play mirrors the film, based on a 2003 novel by Lauren Weisberger, with aspiring journalist Andy Sachs scoring a job at the prestigious Runway magazine for “fashion’s most powerful and terrifying icon” Priestly. As Andy struggles to meet her boss’s demands, she finds herself “seduced by the glamourous world she once despised”, according to the promotional material.

Vanessa Williams, of Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives fame, stars as the icy editor Priestly in the stage production.

Vanessa Williams stars as icy Runway editor Miranda Priestly in the stage production (The Devil Wears Prada Musical/Theatre Royal Plymouth)

Sir Elton had said in September he was slowly healing from a “severe eye infection” that had left his vision impaired. “Over the summer, I’ve been dealing with a severe eye infection that has unfortunately left me with only limited vision in one eye. I am healing, but it is an extremely slow process and it will take some time before sight returns to the impacted eye,” he said in an Instagram post.

“I am so grateful for the excellent team of doctors and nurses and my family, who have taken such good care of me over the last several weeks. I have been quietly spending the summer recuperating at home and am feeling positive about the progress I have made in my healing and recovery thus far.”