George Michael has passed away at 53. As with many talented musicians George Michael dealt with substance abuse and sexual orientation issues. At the age of 19, he told Andrew Ridgeley and close friends that he was bisexual. In a 1999 interview with The Advocate, Michael said that it was falling in love with a man that ended his conflict over bisexuality. "I never had a moral problem with being gay. I thought I had fallen in love with a woman a couple of times. Then I fell in love with a man, and realized that none of those things had been love. I used to sleep with women quite a lot in the Wham! days but never felt it could develop into a relationship because I knew that, emotionally, I was a gay man. I didn't want to commit to them but I was attracted to them. Then I became ashamed that I might be using them. My depression at the end of Wham! was because I was beginning to realize I was gay, not bisexual."

  1998: George Michael comes out in CNN interview   CNN - December 26, 2016