‘We all expected him to die’: George Michael’s ex Kenny Goss breaks silence on singer after five years

Kenny Goss has spoken about the life and death of his ex-boyfriend George Michael, in his first interview for five years.

Wham! star and solo artist Michael died from heart and liver disease in 2016, aged 53, after a long struggle with substance abuse and alcoholism.

Speaking about Michael in an interview with Piers Morgan on his TalkTV show Uncensored, art dealer Goss – who was in a relationship with Michael between 1996 and 2009 – said: “We all expected him to die. I had spent so much time when we lived together, being worried about him.

“Honestly, he hated the fact that I worried about him so much. What’s the line he says in one of his songs? He says, ‘I can see it in your eyes when you look at me that way, it tears me in two.’ And it really did. I just didn’t know what to do.”

He added: “I was worried about him all the time… if you love someone you are worried about them.”

Goss said he “really did try” to save Michael’s life.

“What I always do notice, is there was a lot longer time that I was incredibly happy with him than I was worried with him,” he said.

“He always said that I saved his life. I think that’s a bit much but I really did try.”

Reflecting on their open relationship, Goss said Michael chose him as a partner to “please his mother”, Lesley Angold Panayiotou.

“He had this view that his mother and I were very much alike. And in a lot of ways we were,” Goss said.

“I would say, I’m much more a guy that plays by rules and she was kind of the same way. I’m also not judgmental at all.”

Last year, the trustees of Michael’s £97m estate agreed a financial settlement with Goss, after he had demanded payments of £15,000 a month, claiming that Michael had supported him financially when they were together.

Goss and Michael met at a Los Angeles restaurant in 1988 and were a couple for 13 years from 1996.

The majority of Michael’s estate went to his older sisters, his father and friends. He did not leave anything to Goss, nor to his boyfriend at the time of his death, Fadi Fawaz.

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