Elton John turns kneecaps into gold jewelry in new documentary

Elton John said in a new short documentary released this week that he turned his own kneecaps into gold-plated jewelry after undergoing a double knee replacement in 2024. The British singer and pianist appears in Touched By Gold, produced by the World Gold Council, and discusses how the operation, and a subsequent collaboration with London jeweller Theo Fennell, produced a necklace fashioned from his right patella and a brooch made from his left kneecap.

John recounts that after each kneecap was removed he asked his surgeon if he could keep them. Accounts in the film and subsequent reports describe the surgeon as startled by the request; some versions identify the surgeon as male and others as female. Fennell described the technical process in the film, saying the bones were baked to dry them out until they became porous like pumice. They were then painted with acetate and polished before being framed in gold and plated. The right patella was mounted as a pendant with a chain Fennell said was styled to resemble bones, while the smaller left kneecap was made into a brooch.

John and Fennell discussed visible damage in the bones. John quoted his surgeon as saying he had some of the...