George Michael revealed the trauma of losing his first love to AIDs sent him into a depression in a new documentary which the late singer edited and directed about his life, while his boyfriend Fadi Fawaz was spectacularly snubbed
Freedom, which is to air next week, makes no mention of his boyfriend of seven years – but goes into remarkable detail about the ‘love of his life’, Anselmo Feleppa.
The star-studded Channel 4 documentary, which Michael was working on just days before his death, tells the story of his music and battles with fame.
Pain: George Michael revealed the trauma of losing his first love to AIDs sent him into a depression in a new documentary which the late singer edited and directed about his life, while his boyfriend Fadi Fawaz was spectacularly snubbed
It also reveals the catastrophic effect his boyfriend Anselmo’s death from AIDs had on the star.
Michael was 27 when he saw Brazilian Anselmo in the audience of the Rock in Rio concert and asked staff to introduce them.
In a personal interview just three months before his death on Christmas Day, the star recalled: ‘He caught my attention so much that I had to stop going to that corner of the stage, because I was distracted.
‘Everything had changed. I was happier than I’d ever been in my life.
New documentary; Freedom, which is to air next week, makes no mention of his boyfriend of seven years – but goes into remarkable detail about the ‘love of his life’, Anselmo Feleppa
The singer, who was notoriously private about his private life, said he was ‘frightened’ after Anselmo went for a HIV test – knowing the results could mean they both suffered from the infection.
He said: ‘He went to the doctors over Christmas, it was the most frightening time of my life.
‘I was terrified of losing him. He was my saviour. Finding a companion at that time in my life changed me
‘Then when my mum got cancer, I felt so bloody picked on by God. I took it very badly, very badly indeed. I’ve never felt that kind of depression.’
He famously wrote the song Jesus to a Child about Anselmo.
The highly-anticipated documentary features interviews with star-studded cast of A-listers, including Kate Moss, Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Liam Gallagher.
The singer, who co-directed the film with his manager David Austin, had been in the editing suite working on the film just two days before his death on Christmas Day last year from a heart condition at the age of 53.
He was apparently being found lifeless in bed in his £5 million north London mansion by his boyfriend of three years, hairdresser Fadi Fawaz, 44.
Fawaz has since been accused of demanding a multi-million pound payout from the singer’s estate to ‘keep up with his lavish lifestyle’.
A leaked 999 call made by Fawaz when he discovered the singer’s body revealed he spent an hour trying to wake him before phoning for an ambulance.
On the recording, he said: ‘I’ve been trying to wake him up for the last hour but it was not possible. He’s gone. He’s blue. He’s gone. He’s in bed, dead.
In the documentary, the singer also revealed gruelling details of his battle with fame, calling music a ‘controlling lover’.
He admitted: ‘I had a desperate ambition as a child to be famous. But if I was looking for happiness, that was the wrong road. I kind explain how overwhelming that kind of hysteria can be. Suddenly it’s scary. Ten months of that was enough to push me to the edge.’
It also went into detail about his court battle with Sony, which saw him try and free himself from his long-term record contract.
Michael’s lifelong friend and former manager, David Austin, said the singer had come to regret the court case which was launched after he grew frustrated over how 1990 album Listen Without Prejudice had been marketed and accused Sony of ‘professional slavery’.
Austin said: He says in the film, and when we were talking about the court case and how we were going to handle it, and I didn’t realise this at all, but he turned around to me and said how he regretted it.
‘He wished he’d never taken Sony on in the first place. It dented the armour in his career in America, he was a guy who was firing on all four cylinders and it just, it blew that candle out in the US without a doubt.’ends
For 90s fans, another set of famous faces make an appearance in the documentary – the original ‘Supers’ who featured in his 1990 video for Freedom.
Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Tatjana Patitz and Linda Evangelista all discuss their friendship with the singer – reuniting after 26 years.
The documentary will be on Channel 4 next Monday (October 16) at 9pm.