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Elton John Turns Removed Kneecaps Into Bespoke Jewellery After 2024 Surgery

A recent documentary captures his collaboration with jeweller Theo Fennell to convert bone into gold-set pieces.

Overview

  • John says he asked to keep both kneecaps after his double knee replacement, which startled his surgeon.
  • He enlisted designer Theo Fennell, who describes baking, drying and sealing the bone with acetate before polishing.
  • John has shown a gold-framed pendant containing a fragment from his right patella.
  • Fennell created a bone-themed chain, and the pendant’s reverse carries a Latin inscription meaning “I will no longer bow to any man.”
  • Reports place the revelation within John’s broader medical history, including an appendectomy in 2013, long-term Type 2 diabetes and complications after prostate cancer surgery in 2017.