George Michael says nobody made him stay in the closet in never before heard interview
English pop stars Andrew Ridgeley and George Michael of Wham at the film premiere of ‘Dune’. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
George Michael revealed why he stayed in the closet in a never before heard interview.
Speaking to his friend and journalist Kirsty Young, George said he didn’t come out due to the epidemic of stigma around HIV AIDS in the 1980s.
He scoffed at the idea record execs forced him to play the heterosexual heartthrob.
The new interview, recorded in what would be his final days, was intended to form the voiceover for his documentary Freedom, which aired last month.
However the recording ended up lasting some two hours, and has now been made into a special series airing on BBC Radio 2.
“It was always a personal decision,” he told Kirsty Young of his coming out.
“I stayed in the closet as long as I was capable of staying in the closet during the Aids period to protect my family.
“Again foolishly maybe – but I loved my family enough to protect them from the fear of Aids.”
A close friend of George also recently claimed the singer did not want to be gay.
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”.
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The TV host 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 performer died on Christmas Day 2016 of natural causes and is laid to rest by his mother in Highgate Cemetery.
