\u201cWe met for lunch. We had this favourite place that George loved called Cynthia\u2019s, which had this afrocado [avocado with ice cream]. George had a bottle of wine, maybe a bottle and a half, and I went off to do other things. Later, I went home. And that\u2019s when I got the call\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
It was 7th April 1998, and Kenny Goss was one of the very first people to get wind of a story that would soon fly across the world. His partner George Michael, pop hit-making machine, global superstar and heart-throb to millions \u2013 mostly girls \u2013 had been arrested for lewd conduct after exposing himself to a police officer in a public toilet in a park in Beverly Hills.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went down to the police station and they told me how much money I had to go and get [for bail]. I had to run around a lot. It was past opening time for banks, and those days you had to go to a lot of cash machines to get even a thousand dollars,\u201d Kenny remembers now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got George out, but he didn\u2019t want to talk about it. We had to stop by the park to get his car, then we drove home. I wasn\u2019t bugging him, but he told me an hour or so later. It did come as a surprise to me, but I didn\u2019t get upset with him. He seemed very stressed out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenny had a ringside seat for the events explored in the two-part Channel 4 documentary George Michael: Outed that recounts how the star came to be outed as gay 25 years ago, how he dealt with it, and what difference it made to him and others.<\/p>\n
The documentary also takes us back to the 1980s, when George first found fame as one half of the pop duo Wham!, with contributors including Holly Johnson, Richard Coles and DJ Fat Tony describing the gay scene at the time, a mixed bag of disco delight and blossoming social freedom under the looming cloud of the AIDS crisis, portrayed so richly in Russell T Davies\u2019s 2021 drama It\u2019s a Sin.<\/p>
While many young men embraced the freedoms of the era, for George it meant developing a split personality. We hear him on tape recalling how he would have been prepared to come out aged 19 but for the knowledge of his mother\u2019s fear, \u201cher thinking I wouldn\u2019t be able to cope with life\u201d. And, of course, there was his burgeoning pop stardom to consider.<\/p>\n
Born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in June 1963 to Greek-Cypriot father Jack and English mother Lesley, George had two older sisters and grew up on the northern outskirts of London, earning money busking on the Tube and working at his father\u2019s restaurant.<\/p>\n
One of the contributors to the documentary is Andros Georgiou, George\u2019s cousin, who grew up alongside the singer and witnessed their childhood shared love of music evolve into something more creative for his pal.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the age of seven or eight years old, we were listening to Elton John albums,\u201d he remembers. \u201cWhen we were 11, we went to see Queen at Earls Court. Our mums took us and waited for us in a Wimpy bar opposite. Then by 14, George was writing his own songs, then he was in a ska band, and by the time we were 18, he\u2019d come up with Wham Rap!.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andros still sounds proud, almost awestruck, four decades later. \u201cWithin a few months, George had the demo for Careless Whisper, which I told him would be a number one record. Last Christmas he started one Boxing Day, and two days later he\u2019d finished it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/02\/1-SE-10-1-Cover-4b0cb32.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C830"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nGeorge often spoke of his lack of confidence as a teenager, and his cousin agrees that life got a lot better for the young musician once his songwriting prowess had been rewarded with a record deal, a string of hit singles and the chance to strut his stuff on Top of the Pops alongside his school pal Andrew Ridgeley. \u201cAndrew was the most confident person I ever met,\u201d remembers Andros. \u201cBut things changed for George for the better. The success of Wham! made him more confident as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such a meteoric rise brought its own challenges, however. While DJ Fat Tony remembers often seeing George in gay nightclubs during the mid-1980s \u2013 \u201calways on the dance floor, you were drawn to that energy,\u201d he tells the documentary \u2013 the singer\u2019s professional success was predicated on his image as a teen heart-throb. It\u2019s easy to see why putting off the big reveal for another day would be the safest option.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin our circle and in the record company, we knew George was gay, and you simply couldn\u2019t be that,\u201d says Andros. \u201cYou\u2019re a pin-up. You have thousands of girls chasing you, and they\u2019re the ones buying pop records. The record company didn\u2019t want to know. It would have stopped everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
He adds of his cousin\u2019s decision: \u201cEverything he did was public knowledge. When your whole life is front page news, you get a kick out of being able to hold a little bit back, something that no one else knows about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his good looks, his money, his talent, his superstardom, carrying around such a burden meant George for a long time never felt the personal contentment that was surely his due. Things changed for him in the 1990s when, having broken America with his debut solo album Faith, his millions bought him a house in Los Angeles, where the press appeared less interested in him, and he found love with Anselmo Feleppa, who he spotted in the crowd at a concert in Brazil.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere had been other people in his life,\u201d reveals Andros. \u201cGeorge\u2019s first solo number one A Different Corner was written about a guy that he was with, who couldn\u2019t cope with the fame. But when it came to Anselmo, it was a magical moment, love at first sight.\u201d<\/p>\n
George said himself, \u201cYou can only be proud of your sexuality when it\u2019s bringing you joy,\u201d and for the first time it was. For a few years, while he made no move to come out in public, everyone around him \u2013 including reporters in Los Angeles, where he was now spending much of his time \u2013 knew the truth.<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/03\/73891S1Ep1George-Michael-Outed-10-2aa7507.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Still the press said nothing, even after Anselmo died from an AIDS-related illness in 1993, and George began performing his elegy to his lost love, Jesus to a Child, which was composed only a few weeks after Anselmo\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Nor did they write anything three years later when he settled down with Kenny Goss, a laid-back Texan he met at a spa \u2013 \u201ca normal one, not a bathhouse,\u201d Kenny good-humouredly confirms. \u201cWe weren\u2019t bothered much in LA,\u201d he says. \u201cWe did get our picture taken a couple of times. I wasn\u2019t out either, so that was unusual for me, but I didn\u2019t overthink it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up in Dallas, but my parents retired to a small country town. When the National Enquirer first got hold of my family, my dad said to them, \u2018You trying to tell me my boy\u2019s gay?!\u2019 Then, when the story [of George\u2019s arrest] came out, my dad went out trying to buy up all the local People magazines. My buddies were all like, \u2018You\u2019re gay and it\u2019s George Michael?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenny was similarly relaxed on that fateful day in April 1998, in the face of the world\u2019s press knocking at their door, and helicopters circling above the house. \u201cI was just trying to understand the situation and reassure George that everything would be OK,\u201d is how he remembers the first 24 hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was stressed out. He took to his bed, then the next morning, we got up, and I told him, \u2018Yep, still a few helicopters up there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
After his initial shock at being arrested, George swung into action. Just as he was known for being a control freak in the recording studio, producing his own music as well as writing and singing, so he firmly took the reins of what happened next in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first day he didn\u2019t know what to do, or what was going to happen, how to tell people,\u201d Kenny recalls. \u201cBut that all changed within the next day and a half. He had his plan of action. He wanted people to see him and that he was in good shape. Suddenly, he said, \u2018We\u2019re going out to dinner.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/03\/George-Michael-Andros-Georgiou-89de7e8.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>By then, Andros had arrived to witness this change in George\u2019s attitude. \u201cI went straight to the house, with 50 camera crews outside and me ringing the doorbell. There was no answer, nor was he picking up the phone. I got back in the car and kept ringing. Eventually he picked up and I said, \u2018What are you doing?\u2019 He said, \u2018I was blow-drying my hair.\u2019 That\u2019s when I knew he\u2019d be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dinner at one of Los Angeles\u2019s glitteriest restaurants was followed by interviews, first with veteran CNN anchorman Jim Moret in the US, then with Michael Parkinson in the UK. George disarmed both audiences with his honesty and sense of humour. As he told Moret, he had reassured himself, \u201cYou\u2019re a human being. Just go on TV and get it sorted.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have buried myself in a hole,\u201d laughs Andros, \u201cbut he did the opposite, and that was what George was about. He wasn\u2019t ashamed. His way of pushing back was to get it all out there: CNN there, Parkinson here, game over.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a way, Andros reflects now, being outed in such a public way came as a relief for the star. \u201cIt was a mistake, but probably a mistake that was meant to happen,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
It also heralded a new era for the singer. \u201cWhat changed was, he got more and more strong-minded with the idea he was going to do what he wanted,\u201d says Kenny.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wrote the song Outside and made the video [lampooning his arrest, turning the public toilet in the park into a glitterballed disco with George at the centre, dressed as a police officer], and that gave him his confidence back. Once he was outed, he was saying, \u2018Jeez, why did I do this for so long?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n