Blue star Duncan James reveals that Lee Ryan was offered up for night of passion with Elton John… so he’d appear in music video collaboration

SECURING an ELTON JOHN collaboration usually involves a big- money deal, flowers and plenty of champagne.

But boyband BLUE found a much cheekier way of getting Sir Elton to appear in the video for their version of his classic song Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word.

In an hilarious, emotional and revealing new edition of my Bizarre Life podcast, DUNCAN JAMES reveals for the first time that the group sealed the deal by offering up LEE RYAN for a night of passion.
Elton, who sings on the group’s 2002 track, eventually agreed to join the video with Duncan, Lee, ANTONY COSTA and SIMON WEBBE after the surprise proposal.

Duncan told me: “We’re at this awards show, Elton was on a big round table and there were lots of celebrities everywhere.

“The record company said, ‘Go on, go up to him and ask him if he’ll be in the video’, and I said, ‘That’s really cringey, I can’t’.

“And they go, ‘Ask him if he’ll be in the video!’ I was like, ‘All right’.

“So I went over and said, ‘Sorry Elton, look, we really loved the song so much, the record company loved the song, and we wanted to know, would you be in the video with us?’

“And he said, ‘Hmm, well if I do that for you, what do I get in return?’ And I just went, ‘Lee?’

“I said, ‘Lee, you can have Lee’, and he went, ‘All right, I’ll be in the video’.”

Lee claims “nothing happened” between him and Elton — but joked: “Now I’ve slept with Elton. That could add to CAPRICE — Caprice and Elton.”

The song was just one of the tracks that turned Blue into golden boys of pop in the early Noughties. The quartet have three platinum albums, 16million record sales, two Brit awards three No1 singles, plus their new biography, Blue: All Rise.

And while they’ve had plenty of highs, the band admitted they’ve suffered lows too.

Lee confessed that he went to rehab secretly twice — including after he split with his son’s mother Sammi Millar and rebounded in the Celebrity Big Brother house in 2014, where he embarked on that memorable love triangle with CASEY BATCHELOR and JASMINE WALTZ.

He told me: “On the rebound I was more like a ping-pong ball.

“There was two of them and I just couldn’t . . . I think I was hurting and that’s what happened.

“I went to rehab. That was the thing, I was drinking probably a bottle, maybe two bottles, of whisky a day. I don’t remember it too much.” Lee, Bizarre’s Shagger of the Year for two years running, also opens up about his other pop star antics detailed in the band’s new biography, Blue: All Rise, which is out now.

He said: “I dived in that pot, swam around in it and took a big, happy bite.”

It wasn’t the first time Lee went to rehab — he first sought help after Duncan found him searching his cupboards for drink.

Duncan added: “I spoke to the boys and said, ‘He’s going to rehab because he’s got a problem’. Thankfully he listened to us.”

Simon, who has also suffered low moments, commented: “It’s all about positivity now.

“We’re all healthy and we’ve got our families, we’ve got our friends and we’ve got the fans. We can’t ask for anything else.”

Lee’s time in rehab helped him turn his life around and he is now a star in one of the country’s biggest soaps.

He landed the part of Woody in EastEnders this year and hasn’t looked back, despite the BBC show being known for putting actors such as DANNY DYER under immense pressure.

He said: “I feel really blessed — and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

“I’ve had a lot of broken bones in this industry but I feel very strong. There’s not much that I haven’t been through.”

Lee reckons his strength is down to the support of his bandmates of 17 years — even though they have all gone their different ways, with Duncan in Hollyoaks, Simon working on solo music and Antony moving into theatre.

He said: “The boys have always been there for me.

“We’ve all been through bad times but the one thing we’ve always got is each other.”

They’re one of few bands who have managed to stick together through thick and thin.

Ed-ing for Crimbo exile

ED SHEERAN might be odds-on to claim his first Christmas No1 after unveiling his shock BEYONCE collaboration yesterday.

But the superstar won’t be toasting the huge moment with a Baileys round the dinner table at his family home in Suffolk.

Ed has revealed his entire Christmas is in crisis after admitting the Sheeran clan have been driven out by selfie-obsessed fans. In an exclusive chat, Ed said: “I can no longer spend Christmas at my parents’ home as people have caught on to that and turn up on Christmas Day asking for selfies. I was like, ‘Guys, it’s Christmas’, but I guess it comes with it, so we’ll spend it somewhere else, I don’t know where yet but it won’t be at home.”

Ed will take some comfort after learning his new duet with Bey on his tune Perfect has catapulted him to the firm favourite to bag the Christmas top spot.

Ed said: “She’s always top of my list to sing with. Even just standing near her on stage makes me look better just because she’s that amazing.

“If my career ended tomorrow, I’ll still be able to tell my grandkids that I got to sing with Beyonce.”

Perhaps he can have Christmas round hers.

Chris grovels to Olivia

I KNEW it wouldn’t take long before CHRIS HUGHES posted a grovelling online apology.

The Love Island contestant claimed he has “learnt his lesson” after being caught on video with his arms around another woman behind girlfriend OLIVIA ATTWOOD’s back.

He admitted to being a “drunk d***” on Twitter – and said “Sometimes it takes an incident to sharpen up in life.”

My exclusive footage showed Chris getting close to a mystery brunette. Clubbers contacted Olivia on social media to say they saw the pair kiss.

But Chris insists: “All of us do things we shouldn’t one time or another and do stupid s*** but nothing escalated as it never would.”

I’ve always said this relationship was doomed.

The Sun's celeb Movember results

TODAY marks the end of Movember so The Sun’s celebrity tache-growing trio can now get out their shavers.

But it won’t take long for Made In Chelsea’s SAM THOMPSON to remove his. A light breeze would do the trick for Sam’s, err, fluff, unlike pals PETER ANDRE and MARIO FALCONE whose face furniture is far more impressive.