George Michael will speak about the death of his first love from an AIDS-related illness as part of a Channel 4 documentary on the tragic star.
Brazilian designer Anselmo Feleppa died in 1993 after George – who passed away aged 53 on Christmas Day 2016 – nursed him in secret for four years.
The Wham! superstar narrates the 90-minute show, called Freedom, which spans a five year period of his life, including the moment he first laid eyes on handsome Anselmo in a hotel lobby in Brazil in 1991.
Tragic: The late George Michael (left) will speak about the death of his first love, Anselmo Feleppa (right, with George on a night out in New York) in a new documentary
George, who was 27 and had just released Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 when he met older Anselmo, also speaks about the making of that album and the famous battle with his record company, Sony.
Sony are set to re-release the album on 20 October – around the same time the Channel 4 documentary will air.
A source who has seen the film told the Mirror: ‘George speaks very movingly about Anselmo being the first love of his life and how important he was in his life.
‘It is very emotional and he clearly never forgot him and left a huge impression on George.’
Loved him until the end: Brazilian designer Anselmo (right) died in 1993 after George (left) – who passed away aged 53 on Christmas Day 2016 – nursed him in secret for four years
Having made his name as a hunky pop star in the 1980s, surrounded by adoring female fans, it was years before the star – born Georgios Panayiotou – was open about his sexuality.
But Anselmo’s death threw George into what the Faith hitmaker later described as a ‘depressive spiral’.
George, who sold more than 100 million records in his lifetime, told Desert Island Discs host Kirsty Young in 2007: ‘ Within six months I knew that he was terminally ill. It was AIDS-related, he very likely picked it up in New York.
‘So it was a very strange first love. It was very distorted by the situation. This was the first love of my entire life.’
The Wham! superstar narrates the 90-minute show, called Freedom, which spans a five year period of his life, including the moment he first laid eyes on handsome Anselmo in 1991
He added: ‘It was tragic that I lost him, but it was a wonderful experience meeting him. There have only been three times I’ve really fallen for anyone.
‘And each time, on first sight, something has clicked in my head that told me I was going to know that person. And it happened with Anselmo across a lobby.’
But no sooner had he begun to recover from losing Anselmo – for whom he wrote the song, Jesus to a Child – George learned his mother, Lesley, had cancer.
Closed book: Having made his name as a hunky pop star in the 1980s, surrounded by adoring female fans, it was years before the star – born Georgios Panayiotou – was open about his sexuality. Pictured: George left in concert, and right in a studio portrait in London in 1987
Her death in 1997 threw him further into depression, a condition that ran in his family.
He began taking large quantities of Prozac and smoking strong ‘skunk’ cannabis.
George once said: ‘I lost my partner to HIV then it took about three years to grieve; then after that I lost my mother. I felt almost like I was cursed.’
The Last Christmas singer, who died of heart failure at his home in Goring, Oxfordshire, had admitted to being addicted to a string of drugs.
George’s last lover, boyfriend Fadi Fawaz, does not feature in the new documentary.
Re-release: George had just released Listen Without Prejudice Vol 1 (pictured) when he met older Anselmo. Sony are set to re-release the album on around the time the documentary airs