George Michael's manager says singer 'refused to be ashamed' over his sexuality
Swept free of fallen leaves and covered with fresh, fragrant roses, George Michael 's grave is lovingly tended and visited every Christmas by his surviving family.
Singer George, who tragically died from heart disease aged 53 on Christmas Day in 2016, is buried alongside sister Melanie and mum Lesley.
Melanie was 59 when she died three years to the day after George, and Lesley was also 59 when she lost her battle with cancer in 1997.
Now the three rest side by side in the East Cemetery at Highgate, North London.
And for George's surviving sister Yioda and dad Jack there is finally some sense of peace after many long years of heartache.
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Andros Georgiou (pictured) has spoken about late singer George Michael (Sonja Horsman)
Andros, pictured with George (left) and Shirley Kemp (right), spoke about his late friend ahead of a new documentary (Handout)George's friend and one-time manager Andros Georgiou says: "His family had a really hard time of it.
"He often said he would have given up all his fame and money to have his family together and his mum back with him. He loved them so much.
"Time is a healer, though, and Jack and Yioda are now at peace – as much as you can be at peace with that amount of tragedy."
Yioda, 61, now runs George's estate as well as his website and social media channels, including the campaign to get George into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Andros last saw Yioda at the funeral of a mutual friend in November 2021. He says: "Yioda is as OK as she can be, losing her mum, brother and sister.
"It's hard. They visit George around Christmas time because his mum’s birthday was Christmas Eve and that’s when Melanie and George died.
"They have someone looking after the graves. There's always beautiful flowers and it looks lovely."
George, pictured with his sister Melanie and his parents, died in 2016 (Instagram)Andros is speaking ahead of appearing in upcoming Channel 4 documentary Outed about the scandal surrounding George's arrest in Los Angeles in 1998 for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet.
The incident led to the star coming out as gay and the documentary celebrates how George was a trailblazer for the gay community.
Andros, who was managing George at the time, was called at 3am in London and flew straight to George's LA home. There he found the singer, who had been released on bail by then-boyfriend Kenny Goss, getting ready to go out and face the world.
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Andros says: "A big part of the film is how he dealt with it and I was always so proud of him and I still am today. When my plane landed I went straight to his house and he wasn’t answering his phone. There were loads of paps and reporters outside.
"Then he finally picked up. I said, ‘Where are you?’ And he sounded so chilled. He said, ‘I’m just doing my hair. We’re going out’."
Instead of hiding from all the attention, George took Andros to LA’s fashionable Spago restaurant.
Andros adds: "We went to the restaurant and everyone had nothing but good things to say to him. They were, like, ‘Good on you, live your life’."
Andros had once been George's managerHe says George told him: "I’m proud of who I am. I don’t want to hide any more. Let’s just have a great night."
They went to a private party at the home of British socialite Tamara Beckwith before going on to Santa Barbara for more partying.
"I remember looking at him and thinking he just looked lighter, like a load had been lifted," says Andros.
"It was a stressful situation but the way he handled it was incredible.
"Him refusing to be ashamed was the bravest thing and it paved the way for so many other people."
After pleading "no contest" to the charge George was handed a fine and 80 hours’ community service.
Soon afterwards, he made a video for his single Outside satirising the public toilet incident, featuring men dressed as policemen kissing.
This was how George acknowledged to the world that he was gay – though he had spoken to his family about his sexuality long before.
He has also recalled George dealing with the loss of Anselmo Feleppa (pictured)Six years earlier, George had found love with Anselmo Feleppa, a Brazilian designer who he met at the Rock in Rio concert in Brazil in 1991. But six months into their relationship, Anselmo was diagnosed HIV positive and in 1993 he died of an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage.
George's single Jesus to a Child was a tribute to tragic Anselmo, as was his hit 1996 album Older.
Speaking about the loss of Anselmo, George once said: "It was a terribly depressing time.
"It took about three years to grieve, then after that I lost my mother. I felt almost like I was cursed."
Andros was there the night George and Anselmo met, and the three went on to live with each other for six months. Andros recalls how when Anselmo died George wrote a letter to his mum telling her he was gay.
He says: "His mum and dad had already met Anselmo at my son’s christening. We disguised Anselmo as being my ex-wife’s cousin to them.
"George felt he needed to do that. But when he died George was absolutely beside himself. All he wanted was someone to love, and he’d found that in Anselmo.
"It was a very cruel turn of events and he needed his mum to know what he was going through.
"She obviously knew he was gay but it wasn’t a conversation they had over dinner. So he wrote the letter and we got it hand delivered. In it he wrote about how he had found the love of his life but that he had died of AIDS.
"He also assured her that she didn’t need to worry because he [George] was fine. Within an hour of her reading it, she called and they had it out over the phone. He was crying. She was crying. It was so sad but it was a beautiful moment."
Two-part documentary George Michael: Outed is on Channel 4 on March 6 and 7, 9pm, and will be available to stream on demand on All4.
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