George Michael wanted to not be gay, claims friend Richard Madeley
George Michael’s former partner Kenny Goss has reflected on the singer’s infamous arrest and outing (YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images)
George Michael would have preferred to not be gay, one of the late star’s friends has claimed.
TV presenter and journalist Richard Madeley says the Wham! singer told him he would have chosen to be straight, given the choice.
According to the presenter, the two men had been at a dinner party when he revealed the wish.
Madeley says that, asked what sexuality he would pick were it a totally free choice, Michael said “not to be gay”.
Apparently the singer, who didn’t come out until the late 1990s, struggled with being gay as he found it “complicated”.
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The claims came during a breakfast television chat with Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell.
In a question to Burrell about coming out as gay, host Richard Madeley said: “A very dear friend of ours, now passed on, George Michael, said to us quite early on over dinner once, in a conversation, that had he been given an absolute free choice over his sexuality, he would have preferred not to be gay.
“And I asked him why, and he said, ‘it’s just so damn complicated’.”
The revelation comes after Culture Club singer Boy George said he never became friends with Michael, and it frustrated him that he didn’t come out.
Both Georges rose to fame in the 1980s, but George Michael refused to come out as gay until more than a decade later.
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The Freedom performer died on Christmas Day 2016 of natural causes, age 53.
Since his death his place of burial, Highgate Cemetery, north London, has been flooded with fans wanting to pay tribute.
