A frontpage story for The Sun claims that Sir Elton John and his civil partner David Furnish are expecting their second child, thought to be from the same surrogate mother who gave birth to their son Zachary, who is a month shy of his second birthday.

A source close to the couple told The Sun the revelation – although this is something that the paper has not been able to confirm with the stars. The source told the newspaper: “Elton and David love this lady [the surrogate mother] like a sister and they feel indebted to her for life.

“Naturally she has been well rewarded. But her identity will never be revealed.”

Sir Elton recently said in response to questions about a second child: “At what stage we don’t know. But we definitely will. I don’t want him to be an only child.”

In August, Sir Elton said that he fears that his son Zachary will face taunts because he has two male parents: “At school other children will say, “you don’t have a mummy.’”

Sir Elton added: “We’ve come a long way, but there’s still homophobia and will be until a new generation of parents don’t instil it in their children.”

When the news of Sir Elton and Mr Furnish’s son Zachary’s birth was announced, the BBC covered the story by interviewing Christian extremist Steven Green who had previously supported the execution of gay people. He said: “This isn’t just a designer baby for Sir Elton John, this is a designer accessory.”