GEORGE MICHAEL (April 10, 1998 at CNN studio, Los Angeles; copyright CNN) JIM MORET: For sixteen years
George Michael has been an international GEORGE MICHAEL: I most certainly am. I'd like to put to rest some misconceptions JM: They being the British
press? GM: Yeah. But it's had its lighter moments. I've been living in a circus, you know, in the middle of
helicopters flying around my house. JM: You were actually taken into custody at a park in
Beverly Hills? GM: Yes. JM: You were alone? GM: Yeah, I was alone. JM: And you've chosen not to comment on the specifics
because you were arrested, but there have been no charged filed... GM: I'm not at liberty to talk about it, but not because I'm
afraid to talk about it, but simply because it's a legal situation that's still up in the air and I don't know whether or not I'm
going to be charged with JM: But
you've been very open about the fact that it's something you're not exactly thrilled with yourself for; you're angry with yourself
for putting yourself in this position... GM: Of course. I put myself in a position where I risked all kinds of
things. I risked prosecution. I risked all of the things that happened to me and I'm not proud of that at all. But
the actual the moral question at the center of it - which ultimately would not be a huge deal if it was a heterosexual moral
question - the moral question at the center of it, I'm not ashamed of it at all. JM: Your sexuality has been a focus of tremendous
attention... GM: Yeah. JM: ... in Great Britain ... GM: Yeah. I think everywhere, to some degree. With pop
stars or film stars, we become the object of people's self-definition, as well as the object of sexual definition. I think
people like to think they can spot JM: You mean ambiguous? GM: Ambiguous, yeah. I think while it works very successfully in pop culture -
especially if you are trying to communicate something emotional or sexual, that you're communicating with both men and women - JM: So, in unambiguous terms, what is it that you want to say? GM: I want to say that I have no problem
with people knowing that I'm in a relationship with a man right now. I have not been in a relationship with a woman for almost
ten years. I do want people to know the songs that I wrote when I was with women were really about women, and the songs I have
written since have been fairly obviously about men. So, I think in terms of my work, I've never been reticent in terms of
defining JM: George, why do you feel compelled to open
up a very private part of your life and make it so public? GM: Because I've kind of done that, haven't I? I've done that in
a way that I didn't really intend to. And, I think having done something as stupid as that - I'm a very proud man - I want
people to know that I JM: Do you feel that, in some fashion, you put yourself in this subconsciously so you could
address this issue that has apparently been disturbing you? GM: No. I don't think so. I don't think I ever really
wanted to address it and certainly not quite this way. I think it was the danger of the situation that must have compelled me
to do it because it was absolutely compulsive. I have no problem in saying that I am a human being and I think for most of us
our biggest frailties are sexual. JM: But you have been, as we've said, in the limelight. You've been considered a superstar
for so long, was there a time you felt you wanted to step back from such a public life? GM: I made some pretty important decisions
at the end of the whole Faith period. I don't think that they were entirely divorced from my feeling my sexuality was changing, or
that I was defining myself in a different JM: What do you make of the tremendous attention, perhaps over zealous -- at least certainly by your accounts --
of the British tabloids into your personal life and the incessant interest? GM: Well, I think its just something you have to
accept and I think if I wasn't prepared to accept that I wouldn't have put myself out there again. I really did at one point
believe that I never wanted that sort JM: Are you angry with
yourself, or are you angry at the position the British press has put you in your own country? GM: No, I think I'm angry at media
generally about a lot of things, but not just for myself. I mean for all of us, whether we're famous or not famous, or just
happen to get caught in the glare of publicity over one JM: Was it a difficult decision for you to come out publicly about being gay? GM: No.
I knew I was going to do this from the moment I was arrested. Absolutely, I knew that this was the only way to go. I've seen
too many people run away from situations like this and I'm thinking "just go on TV; you're a human being, just go on TV and get
it sorted out as quickly as possible." JM: Sorting out this incident and telling the world "I'm gay" are two very
different things. GM: I define my sexuality in terms of the people that I love and my life right now is very happy living in a gay
relationship. I'm very happy with that; I don't look to the future and think I might change my sexuality because I'm hoping that my
relationship is the one that is going to last me for the rest of my life. I mean I could've tried to put any number of angles
on this tonight, but ultimately at the end of the day I'm not ashamed, I'm just pissed with myself for having been so stupid.
And I'm perfectly prepared to believe that as long as I am truthful to myself and truthful to the people who are out there with my
music then I have nothing to fear. JM: I appreciate your candor and thank you for coming here. GM: Thank you. Back
to the George Michael Info page
from
Jim Moret's CNN News Exclusive Interview
star, but for the last week the international tabloids, specifically the British
tabloids,
have been focusing a great deal on his personal life following an arrest here in Beverly
Hills on Tuesday. And
you're here to talk about this...
full stop,
really, or period as you say here. The greatest misconception of this week is that
I've had the most hellish ... well I'm
not saying it's been a good time, but it has not been the
worst time in my life by any means. It's been humiliating,
embarrassing ... funny to some degree ...
but I'm reading reports coming back from London that I laid awake crying and was
devastated
and this and that.
And the truth was I laid awake quite angry at the situation. And believe me, if this one
gets over
here: I did not try to convince the arresting officer that I was looking for my lottery ticket when he
arrested
me. Par for the fact that I think they were trying to make me look greedy as well as perverse.
Literally hundreds of people outside the house waiting day and night for something ... I
don't know what exactly. But I just want to tell my fans, who I feel, apart from embarrassing myself, I've embarrassed them
to
some degree. I just want to let them know that I'm okay; that I know a lot of them realize I've had a very tough time over the
last 5 or 6 years. And I want to let them know this is not going to finish me off.
This is really nothing compared to the
bereavements I've had to deal with. Even compared to the legal situations I've had to deal with, this is kind of ... I was
going to say a walk in the park, but I don't think
that would work here.
anything. I've been advised that I am not really allowed talk about the detail of it.
a gay person as opposed to a straight person because it makes them feel, in some way, a little
more defined in themselves. And if someone is on the borderline, which I've always considered myself in terms of the way
I
appear to people...
my
sexuality was not cut and dried. I spent the first half of my career being accused of being gay when I hadn't had anything
like a gay relationship. In fact, I was 27 before that happened to me. So I spent
years growing up being told what my
sexuality was, really, which is kind of confusing. And then by the time I'd kind of worked out what it was and I'd stopped
having relationships with women, I was just so indignant
about the way I had been treated until then, I just thought, well, I'll
just hold on to this. They [the media] don't need to know. I don't think I should have to tell them. But, you know, this is as
good a time as any...
my sexuality. I write about my life and I want people to know, especially people who loved the earlier stuff,
especially if they were young girls at the time, there was no bullshit there.
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.
way, but it was far more to do with the fact I was feeling very unhappy. I was very
miserable at the center of that kind of fame at 23-24. I just couldn't cope with that. I don't think that is all
together that
surprising considering that I left school at 17 and was a star by the time I was 18 - a star in certain parts of
the world anyway.
of success. My success over the last seven years really has gone from strength to
strength in the rest of the world. So I achieved what I wanted, which was to hold on to my ability to do something that was
going
to please people and write something that meant something to me and to them. I also gave myself the chance to quite slow my
life down and grow up a bit, even though this week has not been the most grown up
of my life...
issue or another, I think the media is a real demon. But from my
own point and what's happened, I can't be angry with anyone but myself. I mean, the only people I've really hurt are myself,
the people who love
me and my partner who has been absolutely amazing and understands me, thank God. I owe those people
apologies, as again, I said I probably owe an apology to fans that have been supportive and have not wanted to believe that any of
this was true. I know it really takes a little bit of the sheen off of the mystique, to put it mildly, but other than that I
really don't have apologies to make.