All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S02E07_English

I have never met a star

who didn't come from
the same kind of insecurity.

Man: Mm-hmm.
You know, it's the things

that are missing
that make you a star.

It's not the things
that you have.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome
to "How It Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

George Michael --
musical genius,

singer, songwriter,

a charitable and legendary
international superstar

but haunted by demons.

He had the voice of a maestro

but the darkness
of extreme regret,

all of which turned him
into a tabloid target.

Deeply dispirited and all alone
behind the doors

of his country home
on Christmas Eve,

George Michael went to sleep
and never woke up.

This is how it really happened.

♪♪

Halperin: You know that song
"Last Christmas"?

It's one of George Michael's
most famous songs of all time.

♪ Last Christmas,
I gave you my heart ♪

♪ The very next day,
you gave it away ♪

Halperin:
He loved Christmas so much.

It was his favorite day
of the year,

and the saddest part
of everything is,

he died on Christmas.

♪♪

Telling: George and his
boyfriend, Fadi Fawaz,

began spending a lot of his time
at his country house.

Velez-Mitchell: Which is halfway
between London and Oxford.

It's a gorgeous area,
very traditional,

and it being Christmastime,

there was this huge parade
past his home,

and everyone's carrying torches.

And so it's just
very spectacular.

Steele: One night, I saw him
looking out the window,

and it's a very sad,
kind of ghostly image,

just caught his face
behind the glass

sort of looking at the world
but detached from it.

Fadi Fawaz seems to have been
the final regular boyfriend

in the last decade
of George's life.

Velez-Mitchell: Fadi said he had
been there that weekend,

and he'd gone out
on Christmas Eve.

And the next day,
Christmas Day,

at about noon,
a little bit after noon,

he goes in to wake
George Michael up,

and he can't wake him up.

Steele:
He makes a hurried phone call

to the emergency services
in Oxfordshire at 1:42 p.m.

My goodness, what's going on?
What happened to George Michael?

♪♪

Michael:
Good evening, London!

This is the last night.

Everyone around the world
knew who he was.

Moret: He was sexy.
He had a great voice.

He had a swagger about him.

I defy you to watch the video
"Faith" and not think,

"That is a cool guy."

♪ Yes, I got to have faith ♪

♪ Ooh, I got to have faith ♪

Oh, my God.

George Michael was serving it,
choreography and everything.

♪ I got to have faith,
faith, faith ♪

He was suddenly
a real sex symbol.

I mean, everyone remembers those
ripped jeans and the aviators.

I was so impressed
with his work.

I was in awe of his talent.

Woman: George!
We love you, George!

George, we love you!
George, we love you!

George Michael was born
in East Finchley, London.

His father was a restaurateur.

His mother, Lesley,
was a dancer.

It was at age 7 she even started
encouraging him to sing.

She thought he had talent.

She was extremely sensitive
and proud

that her son had a liking
toward art and music.

When George was 12,
they moved to the suburbs,

and that's where he met
Andrew Ridgeley.

Michael: What did I
first think of him?

I thought
he was pretty loud,

you know, brash,
young thing.

You admired him,
in other words?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I thought, "Now, there's a boy
I want to sit next to."

They hit it off really well.

George Michael always knew
he wanted to write music.

Andrew Ridgeley always knew
he wanted to be famous.

Napier-Bell: Andrew was like
the lad about the classroom,

the one who made
everybody laugh,

and he was good-looking
and handsome.

And George looked at him,
"oh, I want to be like that."

Telling:
By the time they were 16,

they decided to pursue
their dreams

and started mapping out
their future as pop stars.

Halperin: Andrew Ridgeley really
was the influence

to George Michael
to convince him

he had what it took
to become a singing superstar.

Especially people
who managed to get tickets,

you know, we'd love to have
seen everyone off personally,

but can't do it.

One day, you're a kid
going to school

and then, boom, WHAM!

Napier-Bell: I met WHAM! first

after I'd seen them
on "Top of the Pops."

The very first thing they did
when they walked in the room

was for George
to look at us and say,

"Can you make us
the biggest stars in the world?

You've got one year."

Their first hit was
"Young Guns."

♪ Well, I hadn't seen your face
around town awhile ♪

♪ So I greeted you
with a knowing smile ♪

♪ When I saw that girl
upon your arm ♪

♪ I knew she'd won your heart
with a fatal charm ♪

♪ I said, "Soul Boy" ♪

Halperin: It exploded.

Nobody had ever seen
a group like WHAM!

arrive on the scene,
exude so much sexuality.

They were so cute and young
and charming and exuberant,

and they were optimistic,
and the songs were poppy.

They became overnight
sensations.

Ladies and gentlemen,
this is WHAM!

[ Cheers and applause ]

On "American Bandstand,"
you take one look at him,

and you say,
"That guy's a star."

♪ You got soul on the Dole? ♪

♪ You're gonna have a good time
down on the line ♪

♪ I said get, get,
get on down ♪

♪ I said get, get,
get on down ♪

Kahane: I saw WHAM!
come on and do their show,

and I realized immediately
that George's voice

and his skills onstage
were far beyond his years.

I was blown away.

Halperin: The records were just
flying off the shelves,

and women were going crazy.

Young girls wanted to marry
the members of WHAM!

They were obsessed
with Andrew and George.

Who's hotter, Andrew or George?

Telling: He had these women
throwing themselves at him,

and he didn't quite know
how to react to that.

I was seriously underdeveloped
emotionally,

never had any crushes
on anyone at school,

never fell in love
at school.

DeCurtis: There was always
kind of, you know,

ambiguity to his sexuality.

Yeah, but that was just fine.

I mean, you know,
everybody liked it.

You know, the boys liked it.
The girls liked it.

The biggest thing was
♪ wake me up before you go go ♪

♪ Because I'm not planning
on going solo ♪

♪ Wake me up
before you go go ♪

♪ Take me dancing tonight ♪

♪ I want to hit that high! ♪

Telling: It was really their
second album --

"WHAM! Make It Big" --
that everybody remembers.

It came out in 1984,
and it had the hits like

"Everything She Wants,"
"Freedom," "Careless Whisper."

♪ Time can never mend ♪

♪ The careless whispers
of the good friend ♪

George Michael just had
a kind of sophistication

as a vocalist,
even when he was doing

the most sugary kind of pop.

He managed to bring
that across in a way

that was convincing and fun.

It shows the real brilliance
of George Michael.

his sensitivity
and his profoundness

in cultivating a song.

He was a genius.

Napier-Bell:
A lot of people say,

"What did Andrew do
in the group?

It was all George.
He wrote the songs.

He performed.
He was the singer."

That's rubbish.

The image of WHAM!
is really Andrew,

that happy-go-lucky lad
around town.

George was a copycat of Andrew.

So the image of WHAM!
was the real Andrew

and the fake Andrew.

And the image of a group
is, in the end,

really more important
than the music.

There's no question
that George Michael

was the major talent in WHAM!

But that doesn't mean that
Andrew Ridgeley

wasn't important.

His importance was significant
in emotional terms.

He needed Andrew there.

Right from the beginning
with WHAM!,

George had in mind that WHAM!

would be like a 3-
or 4-year period.

Reporter: You can see behind me,
people are still coming.

We've seen them this morning
laying flowers,

messages, candles,
some people just weeping openly.

Their grief, well,
it's pretty extraordinary.

They're all here because
George Michael

meant so very much to them.

They all want to know
why he died at such a young age.

He would constantly have
this fear of dying young.

He said, "I know I'm going to."

I said, "Why do you say that?"

And he said, "I don't know.
I just know it."

When WHAM! were invited to play
in China in 1985,

it was a huge deal.

Nobody had even thought
of playing China.

Napier-Bell: Being the biggest
stars in the world

means being the biggest star
in America, too.

My partner said, "Well, maybe
we can find a gimmick.

Maybe we can make you
the first Western pop group

ever to play
in Communist China."

And George said,
"Yep, I like that.

Do that."

When the concert
took place in Beijing,

there were over 118 television
crews from around the world.

Halperin: I think it's
the biggest accomplishment

of the legacy of WHAM!

was to go to China
and do the "Freedom" video

and the "Freedom" song.

No other Western artist
had performed in China.

♪ I don't want your freedom ♪

♪ I don't need to play around ♪

Napier-Bell: It did exactly
what we wanted because,

in the course of two weeks,

WHAM! were broken totally
in America.

Halperin:
It was unparalleled.

It just set them so further
apart than everybody else.

They were real, true innovators.

Right from the beginning
with WHAM!,

George had in mind that WHAM!

would be, like,
a 3- or 4-year period.

DeCurtis: George Michael
was mature enough as an artist

to not need WHAM!

He had outgrown what that
collaboration represented,

but emotionally,

I don't think he was
necessarily in that place.

Kahane: George said, "I know
you're not gonna like this,

but there is no more WHAM!"

And I took a pause, and I said,

"Well, of course
there's a WHAM! I mean --"

"No, no, there is no more WHAM!

I've just broken up WHAM!

WHAM! is me."

DeCurtis: George Michael was
ready to go out on his own,

but I think some of the things
that he needed from Andrew

from a partnership maybe weren't
so apparent to him until later.

I think he felt kind of exposed
and isolated.

The bigger he got,

in a sense, the shakier
the ground underneath him felt.

He always felt inside himself
a bit of a fraud,

and I think more and more
and more bubbling inside himself

was the feeling of being
this slightly fake character.

He wasn't really George Michael
he was projecting.

He was projecting this
copycat image of Andrew.

No regrets
about splitting up,

so with a huge thank you
to everyone,

not only today
but for the last four years.

Halperin: I don't think that
either of them

wanted to continue
in the WHAM! vein.

They thought they'd
exhausted it completely,

and there wasn't
much more to say.

Are you jealous of his
solo success?

Don't mention the solo.

No, I feel
I'm a big part of it.

You know, actually, we did
write the record together.

Hilton: George went solo,

and he went from being one of
the biggest stars on the planet

to beingthe
star on the planet.

George Michael's first
solo album, "Faith,"

which came out in 1987...

♪ I got to have faith ♪

♪ Ooh, I got to have faith ♪

♪ Because I got to have
faith, faith, faith ♪

It was a breakthrough, you know,
a dramatic breakthrough.

♪ Before this river ♪

Velez-Mitchell:
Then he does something

very bold and very brave.

♪ Wait for something more ♪

In "Faith," he releases
"I Want Your Sex."

♪ I want your sex ♪

And that was the moment
where he was like,

"I've got
the world's attention."

♪ When you tell me that
you're going to regret it ♪

♪ Then I tell you that I love
you, but you still say, "No"! ♪

I originally was not for that
being the first single,

but George said, "Trust me.
I know what I'm doing."

♪ Sex is best when it's... ♪

♪ One on one ♪

Kahane: He wanted to let
everybody know

that "I Want Your Sex"

wasn't about not being
responsible for sex

but about being with one person.

♪ One on one ♪

Telling: That single was banned
in the U.K.

and the U.S.
for a little while.

They changed it
to "I Want Your Love"

when they were playing it
on the radio.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Napier-Bell:
He made $50 million

on his first solo tour
of America.

He was there at the very top
of the top two

or three artists in the world.

Lobel: Every city we went to
was sold out.

At the end of each show,
the fans were left breathless

from this experience
of the "Faith" show

that they had just witnessed.

It was electrifying.

Michael: That's right.

We had five number one
hit singles on that record --

"I Want Your Sex," "Faith,"
"Father Figure," "Monkey"...

♪ Monkey, monkey, monkey ♪

..."Kissing a Fool,"
"One More Try."

♪ I wrote this song ♪

♪ I know it's wrong ♪

♪ Just let me go ♪

He was very competitive
and more so every time

the charts would come out.

"Did we go to number one?"

And, "Did we jump this artist?

Did we knock Michael Jackson
and Prince down?"

"Yes."

He was...all about winning.

Lobel: George didn't want to
hang backstage and socialize.

He just wanted to go back
to the room and be alone,

and I think that time alone
was just something

that would wear
on him day after day.

There was a tortured
soul inside.

People have been
coming in all day.

There's been a steady stream
of fans really in shock

about the death of
the 53-year-old George Michael.

Reporter #2: Local police say
they were called to the scene

after someone found
Michael unresponsive.

They say that they are
treating his death

as unexpected
but not suspicious.

I am confused as to what
the totality of his death was.

What, his heart stopped
all of a sudden?

Sorry.
I don't buy it.

[ Cheers and applause ]

DeCurtis:
George Michael, he skyrocketed,

and, you know,
in commercial terms

and even artistic terms,
I mean, he did very well.

But emotionally, I think
he struggled with all that.

The "Faith" tour was one of
the most amazing concert tours

I'd ever witnessed
in my life,

and the adulation
that he would get,

and then he'd go back
to his hotel room,

close the door
and be alone.

George didn't want to hang
backstage and socialize.

I think that time alone
was just something

that would wear on him
day after day,

you know,
all around the world,

from Australia to Europe
to the U.S. to Canada,

going back
to your hotel room alone

and not being
who you really are.

Kahane: Yeah, there was
something missing from his life.

I knew he was -- you know,
he was feeling lonely.

When I was younger,
because I suppose

I was so confused
about my sexuality

and other things,

I suppose I was prone
to loneliness

and depression
around loneliness

because it is very lonely
if you're surrounded by people,

but you're not really
surrounded by anyone.

Telling: George always struggled
with his sexuality.

At a young age, he thought
he might be bisexual,

and he told a few people,
and he dated women.

I remember being at the hotel
on a weekend poolside with Rob,

and this is two-thirds
through the tour,

and Rob suddenly asked me...

"Do you think
that George is gay?"

I said, "Well, Rob, yes,
I believe he is gay."

I found out as the tour
rolled along

that George was very unhappy,
and it became obvious to me

why because, you know,
he was so in the closet.

As a gay man,
holding that secret,

holding onto that secret,
then having fame,

I can only imagine
the pressure with that.

He was a tortured soul.

Velez-Mitchell: He was keeping
this deep, dark secret.

But then he falls in love.

Telling: George Michael met
Anselmo Feleppa in 1991.

It was in Brazil
at the Rock in Rio concert.

Anselmo was this spirit
we all wished

we carried around with us.

George was incredibly happy
with Anselmo, incredibly.

He was the part that George
was missing in his life.

The day that I knew
that I was gay was the day

that I knew
that I was in love with a man.

Kahane: I've never seen him
happier in my life.

♪♪

Halperin: People weren't ready
for an artist

of George Michael's stature,

who women went gaga over for
so many years, to just come out.

It would have been career
suicide for him to come out

and say, "I am gay."

Lemon: You may go, "Well, why
wouldn't he just come out?"

You just didn't do that then.

It didn't happen.

There were very few people who
were out and proud in the '80s.

But then his lover becomes ill

six months
into the relationship.

Telling: Anselmo found out
that he had HIV,

and George was devastated.

Imagine the horror of waiting
all your life for love,

for authentic love,

and then within months,
your lover says,

"I have a deadly disease."

But George stuck by him,
and he helped him.

He was by his side 24/7.

Anselmo dies in 1993,

shattering George Michael.

He goes into a deep depression,

and he has depression
in his family history,

so this is a real struggle,

and he begins to medicate
with Prozac and pot,

and he describes this
as a very dark time.

Halperin:
People close to him admit

that that perhaps was the most
devastating experience

of George Michael's life,
was losing his lover.

Velez-Mitchell:
By his own account

of smoking 25 spliffs
of cannabis a day,

which is a massive amount,

and obviously,
that has to take a toll.

That's addictive behavior,

and the thing about addiction
is that it's progressive.

Telling: He grieved for three
years before he really,

you know, could come back
and make music again,

and when he did, he came out
with "Jesus To a Child,"

which was dedicated to Anselmo.

♪ And heaven stole ♪

♪ You smiled at me
like Jesus to a child ♪

George was still grieving
the loss of Anselmo Feleppa,

and then his mother got sick,

and this was another
devastating blow.

Halperin:
He was so close to Lesley,

and she was the person
who really, in the family,

encouraged him
to become a singer.

Now, all of a sudden, he was
embroiled in helping his mother

to fight her cancer.

Not only did she have cancer,
she died three months later.

Halperin:
He really was an emotional wreck

and was in a manic state.

I lost my mother, and, as has
been fairly well documented,

I lost my first partner.

I was afraid,
for the first time,

that I was really scarred by the
things that had happened to me.

I was scared
that he was gonna --

I was scared.

He needed to be watched.

Moret: Imagine
an international superstar

arrested in a public park
men's room.

People started questioning,
"What's going on here?"

Welcome back to
"How It Really Happened."

His album "Faith" sold more than
20 million copies worldwide,

and George Michael had
eight number one songs

on the Billboard Hot 100.

He was now a superstar,

topping Madonna and
Michael Jackson on the charts.

But his personal life was about
to spiral out of control.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Michael: My life should not turn
into a week-long debate

when the world
is absolutely going crazy.

Are we really gonna waste news
space on my sex life?

Velez-Mitchell: He had come out
to his parents

after Anselmo Feleppa died.

He was open with his circle
of friends.

What George Michael hadn't done
was gone on television

and told the whole world,
"I'm gay."

Napier-Bell: For a week,
George lay and sunbathed

in a notorious
gay pickup area park in L.A.

where there is also
a public bathroom.

He was photographed
by several photographers

who spotted who he was.

He was trying to create
a situation where he was forced

to come out rather than
just managing to deal with it.

And well, finally
that situation occurred

when he went to the toilet
and met a policeman.

Telling: That police officer
lured him into the bathroom

under the guise of
maybe hooking up,

and when George exposed himself,
that's when the cops swarmed in.

Kreins: Beverly Hills
police officers

arrested the singer
known as George Michaels.

Mr. Michaels was arrested

for a violation
of 647a of the penal code,

engaging in a lewd act.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

George Michael's arrest,
you know, for, you know,

cruising in a men's room
in Los Angeles in 1998,

I mean,
that was a key moment.

It was a global scandal.

Moret: People started
questioning,

"What's going on here?

George Michael, is he gay?

Is he reckless?
Is he both?

Is he crazy?"

And then, three days later,
three days after this arrest,

we got the interview
with George Michael at CNN.

Moret: You were actually
taken into custody

at a park in Beverly Hills.

Yes, exactly, yeah.

You were alone.
Yeah, I was alone.

He was so nervous

that I actually stopped
the interview.

You think to yourself,
all George Michael really wanted

was some compassion
and some understanding,

maybe some respect.

Your sexuality
has been the focus

of tremendous attention.

Yeah.

I spent the first half
of my career

being accused
of being gay

when I hadn't had anything
like a gay relationship,

and in fact, I was 27
before that happened to me,

so I spent my years
growing up being told

what my sexuality
was really,

you know, which is kind --
kind of confusing.

And then by the time

I had kind of worked out
what it was,

and I stopped having
relationships with women,

I was just so indignant
of the way

I'd been treated until then,
I was just thought,

"Well, I'll just
hold on to this.

I don't think
they need to know.

I don't think I should
have to tell them."

But, you know, this is
as good a time as any.

"I think he just told me
he's gay.

Did he just tell me he's gay?"

So in unambiguous terms,

what is it
that you want to say?

I want to say that I have
no problem with people

knowing that I have a --

I'm in a relationship
with a man right now.

I have not been
in a relationship with a woman

for almost 10 years.

George, why do you feel
compelled to open up

a very private part of your
life and make it so public?

I feel stupid, and I feel
reckless and weak

for having allowed my sexuality
to be exposed this way,

but I don't feel
any shame whatsoever.

You could also see
that it was real,

and he was telling the truth,

and he felt comfort
in the truth.

I'd hoped for him that this was
the beginning

of a wonderful chapter
in his life,

but it didn't
turn out that way.

Napier-Bell: We all heard about
how many drugs he was doing

and how unhappy
he was from time to time.

Velez-Mitchell:
There's this time period,

compressed time period,

where he does seem
to be engaging

in very self-destructive
behavior.

Telling: In the mid-2000s,

George was
arrested several times

for driving
under the influence.

On one occasion, he was asleep.

His car was parked, but he was
still arrested for narcotics.

I was found to have drugs
in the car.

It's something that I put my
hands up for and said,

"It was stupid of me, right?"

I was not unfit to drive,

but it was stupid of me
to get in the car.

Telling: And his arrests seemed
to keep coming.

You know, they would be on the
news seemingly every other year

he was arrested for
doing something in his car.

Here we go again
with George Michael.

He's been arrested
on drug charges again.

Police found him in London,
slumped over in his car.

When he was arrested,
he was unconscious at the wheel.

I believe he was also
in possession at that time

of the designer drug GHB,
the so-called sex drug.

♪♪

It was very late at night
because George had been out

during the day
to the gay pride event,

whereby he crashed his car
into the front

of the Snappy Snaps
photographic store

in Hampstead High Street.

He was stoned out of his mind,
and the reports reveal that,

and he shouldn't
have been on the road.

Steele: And he was also taking
a drug called amitriptyline,

which is a muscle relaxant,

and I believe
it's severely disorientating.

He really didn't even know
where he was or who he was.

Steele: George was sentenced
to eight weeks in prison,

which the standard period for
any prison sentence

in the U.K. is,

unless you misbehave,
you'll be considered

for parole halfway
through your sentence.

Reporter #5: Free after just
four weeks behind bars

and now determined not to be
a prisoner in his own home.

I just thought, "There's no one
in the house.

My minders have gone home,"
and I just thought,

"If I'm gonna, you know --
I know, I've -- I'd like --

As much as I'd love to play
cat and mouse with you all,

I can't be [bleep] bothered."

You know, I want to get out.

I want to go out, so if you'd
take a few pictures, then...

-Thank you.
-...I'd really appreciate it.

George Michael was a mess.

Halperin:
People should have seen

the writing on the wall then.

They should have known
that something really,

really was wrong.

Even then, he didn't
change his habits.

He still turned to drinks
and drugs

to help him cope
through his depression.

This is a very sad man
in a sad life,

seemingly desperately
trying to feel better.

I have a career that I love.

I live in the most beautiful
house I've ever seen.

I have a wonderful partner
of 10 years.

Now, how many men
on this planet,

given the job they want,
the house they want, the partner

they want and the sex they want,
have a right to complain?

[ Indistinct conversations ]

The big shadow that had fallen
over George Michael's life

came at the height
of the "Symphonica" tour.

[ Cheers and applause ]

♪ My baby don't care for shows ♪

Steele: He showed he could be
the traditional entertainer.

Backed by the string section,
heavily orchestrated,

which I believe
is a career high point.

♪ Don't care
for high-tone places ♪

But it was disrupted
by an incident

which I think began in London

because he initially felt
that he had the flu.

By the time he moved on
to Vienna,

he suddenly reached
the point of collapse.

And he gets pneumonia,
and he almost dies,

and he's hospitalized
for something like a month,

and they have to give him
a tracheotomy

because he's literally
on death's door.

Dr. Pinsky: George Michael
had a severe pneumonia,

ended up in an ICU
on a ventilator,

and for a man in his 40s

to develop that kind of
pneumonia, that's unusual.

That's crazy.

Halperin: And that's the time
my sources say

when he was battling
heroin addiction.

Steele:
When George came back to England

after suffering
what he himself described

as a near-death experience,

he was visibly fragile.

He looks thinner.
He looks older.

Halperin:
He looked really, really frail.

It was the most frail
version of George Michael

I had ever seen.

Steele: For all that, in his
normal sentimental style,

he managed to wish
all the assembled press

around his Highgate home
a very, very Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Reporter #6:
He looked weak and unsteady,

but George Michael was appearing
in front of the cameras

near his North London home today
to speak about the illness

that he said had
nearly ended his life.

I got streptococcal something.

It's a form of pneumonia,

and they spent three weeks
keeping me alive, basically.

Reporter #6:
He became breathless

but was clearly determined
to say, "Thank you."

I've spent my --
the last 10 days since I woke up

literally thanking people
for saving my life,

which is something
I've never had to do before

and never want to do again.

Halperin:
I think he got teary-eyed

was mainly because he felt he
has one last shot at life,

and he felt remorse
over a lot of the drug usage

and a lot of the incidents
in the past.

I really, really, really,
really,

from the bottom of my heart
thank everybody

who sent messages,
and everybody in that ICU unit

that made sure that
I'm still here today.

Steele: Then there was a really
bizarre incident in 2013,

which probably still defies
any rational explanation.

Velez-Mitchell: He is being
chauffeured in a Range Rover

and flies out of the car
on a freeway,

and people have to literally
swerve to avoid hitting him.

He is very badly injured.

And he's flown to a trauma unit,

and he's in the hospital
for weeks.

His story is that the door
was not properly closed,

and he tried to
close it and open,

but for those who had been
watching his life,

they suspected there might be
something more to it.

People started to wonder
how you could fall out

of a car moving at that speed,

and some questioned whether it
was actually a suicide attempt.

♪♪

Velez-Mitchell: He gets
to the point where, in 2015,

he knows he needs help,

and he goes to Zurich,
Switzerland,

and reportedly checks
into one of the premier,

most exclusive addiction
clinics in the world.

Telling: There were rumors that
he was going to rehab

for heroin addiction.

Halperin: Let's face it,
George Michael,

he was a drug addict.

He was admitted to drug rehab
on several occasions.

Initially, you've got his loyal
press office saying that,

"Oh, yeah, he's still sort of

dealing with his
marijuana addiction."

But 18 months in Switzerland,

I think there were
more serious issues.

And for George Michael to go
away to Switzerland for a year

and a half,
that's very positive.

The fact that he spent a year
or more anywhere,

that's all good.

♪♪

[ Telephone rings ]

My goodness, what's going on?

What happened to George Michael?

He's cold.

He seems to be beyond hope
by that stage.

Hilton: He had been trying to
revive him for nearly an hour.

Why did you wait that long?

That's very strange.

Halperin: I could understand
waiting 15 or 20 minutes,

trying to revive him,
but 1 hour is an excessive time.

Velez-Mitchell:
Imagine the horror

of coming in on Christmas Day,

say hello,
wake up your boyfriend,

get ready
for a Christmas lunch,

and he's dead, and you're trying
to resuscitate him desperately.

It's a nightmare.

Hilton: I don't know

if we really, really know
what happened

in the last 12 hours
of George Michael's life.

Hilton: In the months leading up
to George Michael's death,

he had pretty much become
a recluse.

He was mostly living
in his country house.

He'd gained a lot of weight.

Halperin: And really did not
want anybody to see him

in the state he was.

He was an emotional
and physical wreck.

His appearance drastically
changed in those final photos

that "The Mirror" released.

He seemed to be a completely
different person.

It didn't look like
the George Michael of the WHAM!

Or the "Faith" era
that conquered the world.

His voice wasn't quite there,
and that really depressed him.

He felt so depressive,
so reclusive

and really didn't know
who to trust.

[ Birds chirping ]

Steele: What happened
on Christmas Day,

it seems incredible

that Fadi would be trying to
revive him

and not phone the emergency
services first.

which became a big bone
of contention

as to whether paramedics
could've done anything at all,

even if they'd been called
an hour earlier.

Certainly the details suggest
that in the words Fadi used,

"He's cold, he's gone,"

he seems to be beyond hope
by that stage.

Telling: Nobody's completely
sure what happened

between Fadi and George
on Christmas Eve.

Fadi was very loyal
to George,

and George was
very loyal to Fadi,

but they would fight.

They were sort of on-again
and off-again.

They partied together, so while
they were good in some ways,

they were maybe not so good
together in other ways.

Velez-Mitchell:
Fadi Fawaz said he had
been there that weekend,

according to a newspaper
he had spoken to,

and he'd gone out
on Christmas Eve,

and he got back, I guess,
late and slept in his car.

First, the boyfriend, Fadi,

said he had spent
the night with George.

Then he says, no,
he slept in the car.

Why was he sleeping in the car
on Christmas Eve?

There's a lot of questions
that arise

during his last hours.

But ultimately, it seems he
was interviewed by the police.

They found nothing suspicious
in his account.

It probably was something
as trivial as a lover's tiff.

There were tweets
put out by his lover.

Reporter #7:
We're now receiving statements

from some of the people
who knew George Michael best,

including the man who was
with him on the day he died.

His partner, Fadi Fawaz,

tweeted overnight
in which he said this.

He said, "it's a Christmas
I will never forget,

finding your partner
dead peacefully

in bed first thing
in the morning.

I will never stop missing you."

He also tweeted that George
had wanted to die...

...and that this maybe
was a suicide.

Halperin:
Fadi's tweets shocked the world

when he said that George
wanted to commit suicide.

That doesn't make sense.

Why would somebody who cares
so much

about another person
do that after they died?

Telling: George Michael's family
was obviously

incredibly upset
with Fadi Fawaz.

Hilton: Ultimately, he said
his twitter was hacked.

Why would somebody hack
his account and tweet that?

There's no evidence
that his account got hacked.

♪♪

Lee: Everyone wanted to know
why George Michael had died,

but it took some time for the
coroner's report to come out.

The first one was inconclusive,
so they had to do it again

to figure out
what exactly happened.

Not sure why they took so long.

Two and a half months now
since George Michael's death

in his home in Oxfordshire
on Christmas Day,

the coroner now saying
that he died of natural causes

relating to the heart
and the liver.

The circumstances surrounding
his death

and even the documentation
on the death certificate,

it's all vague.

What it said on
the coroner's report

is that he had a myocarditis,

which is an inflammation
of the heart muscle

resulting in a cardiomyopathy,

meaning the cardiac muscle
dilated

and became very weak and sick,

and that's ultimately what
killed him, and a fatty liver.

Those aren't natural causes.

Those are medical illnesses
related to drug addiction.

Interestingly enough,
they didn't release

the toxicology report,

but they said,
"This is not a suspicious death,

and basically,
his heart gave out."

The fact that they didn't
release the toxicology report,

some people jumped on that
to say, "Whoo."

The findings in that report
have never been made public.

They've been effectively
suppressed,

so we don't now what substances

were in George's
bloodstream when he died.

The coroner in England has not
released the toxicology results,

but I feel pretty certain
that it's going to be positive.

Just all the circumstances sound
like somebody who was using.

Lee: Some fans will always
want to know

George Michael's toxicology
report to put to rest any doubt

they may have had about
how George Michael had died.

And at some point,
you forget about the tragedy

or the struggles of the artist,
and you enjoy the music itself.

And ultimately, the music
transcends the ages

and transcends the tragedy
of the artist

and lives on
and stands in its own right,

and I think
George Michael's music

will stand in its own right
for generations to come.

♪♪

Moret: When a celebrity puts it
all on the line

like George Michael did,

I think he probably inspired
a number of people

to be honest
about their own lives.

I felt sad
for what could have been.

DeCurtis: I think that this is
somebody who left,

you know, a bunch
of really great hits,

who made an impact
on people's lives.

And I think that's how
he'll be remembered.

Kahane:
He was the most kindest,

most brilliantly
talented artist,

friend, little brother...

that I've ever had.

I'm sad.

♪♪

Michael:
You know, it's the old cliché.

You get everything you want or
everything you think you want,

and then you suddenly realize
that the gap

that you thought
it would fill is still there.

George Michael finally found
peace after a life

that left a lasting mark
on the world.

With more than 115 million
records sold,

he'll be remembered
for his iconic sound,

both live and in studio.

His classic song
"Last Christmas"

will always be a sad reminder
to fans of his untimely end.

I, for one, love George Michael

and think of him every time
I turn a different corner.

Thanks for watching.

Good night.

♪♪