David Furnish says Sir Elton John is "keeping busy and moving forward" after his health struggles.

The 78-year-old music icon revealed last year that he has had a "challenging" time since losing the sight in his right eye in the summer of 2024, and his 63-year-old husband has given an update on the Rocket Man singer's life since he stepped back from touring.

He told Variety: "He's great. He's battling on. He's keeping busy and moving forward. He's happy being at home as a family with our sons.

"That's why he came off the road. We really love parenting, we love our family, and we love being together, and that's everything for us."

This weekend, the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards viewing party returns to West Hollywood with Neil Patrick Harris and his husband David Burtka hosting, and David is optimistic for the fundraiser.

He said: "I would hope that we could raise north of $9 million. Last year was very challenging following the fires in Los Angeles.

"There were a lot of very necessary philanthropic asks for Southern California as a result of the fires. But our ticket sales are really strong this year.

"We've got a fantastic auction, and we've got Neil and David joining us as co-hosts. We're asking people to be generous."

There are plenty of items to get excited about, but there's one in particular that David is looking forward to putting up for auction.

He added: "There's an Irish painter name Jack Coulter. I gifted Elton one of his paintings. He has this amazing ability where he listens to music and he sees colour in an abstract expressionist way.

"He had done a painting called Candle in the Wind, which he had painted listening to Elton's Candle in the Wind.

"So now we've done something with Jack that he'd never done before. We had Jack come down to our gallery, set up his paints and his equipment, and brought in Elton's piano and Elton played Tiny Dancer live while Jack painted. We have a beautiful painting that it truly is one of a kind."

Elton - who has sons Zachary, 15, and Elijah, 13, with David - previously opened up on his health struggles.

He told Variety: "It's been devastating. Because I lost my right eye and my left eye's not so good, the last 15 months have been challenging for me because I haven't been able to see anything, watch anything, read anything.

"I've had the most incredible life, and there is hope. I've just gotta be patient that someday science will help me with this one. Once they help me with this one, I'll be fine.

"It's exactly like the AIDS situation. You mustn't give up hope, you must be stoic, you must be strong and you must always try and batter the door down to try and improve things."