George Michael’s later years ‘were not his best’, says Wham! star Andrew Ridgeley

‘The pleasure we found in each other’s company, and the amusement with which we regarded each other – that didn’t change,’ said Michael’s former bandmate

Andrew Ridgeley has discussed his relationship with his late Wham! bandmate George Michael, saying that the singer’s “later years weren’t his best” due to “many contributing factors”.

Michael, who died aged 53 on Christmas Day 2016 at his home in Oxfordshire, regularly featured in the tabloids in the years preceding his death due to various run-ins with the law.

Speaking about what it has been like to come to terms with Michael’s death, Ridgeley, 60, told Radio Times: “It’s a great loss to me and to all his friends that we’re unable to enjoy his company at this stage of life.

“His later years weren’t his best, with many contributing factors, but, for me, even latterly, our get-togethers always had the same things as before.

“The pleasure we found in each other’s company, and the amusement with which we regarded each other – that didn’t change.”

Ridgeley and Michael formed Wham! in 1981, before releasing hits including No 1 singles “Last Christmas” and “I’m Your Man”. However, the music partnership was shortlived; the pair held a farewell concert in 1986.

Discussing why Wham! needed to come to an end, Ridgeley said it had tp happen “for George to grow into the artist he was destined to be”.

Asked if he knew whether Michael would achieve worldwide acclaim, he said: “Oh, God, yeah. I was extremely proud of him.”

Michael found huge success as a solo artist, but in the Noughties made headlines when he was banned from driving due to drug possession.

In October 2006, he was found slumped over the wheel of his car. The following May he pleaded guilty to driving while unfit through drugs and was banned from driving for two years.

In September 2010, Michael pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis and driving under the influence of drugs after crashing his Range Rover into a north London shop the previous July. He received an eight-week prison sentence and a five-year driving ban.

Michael and Ridgeley in 1984 (Getty Images)

After Michael’s death in 2016, Ridgeley led the tributes, saying: “I had always been aware of George’s importance to me, of the bond of friendship and of the sparkle and light, effervescence and electricity that suffused the music we made.

“Yet in the intervening years between our career together as Wham! and where our different lives had subsequently led us, I had somehow lost sight of quite what my childhood best friend meant to me.”

In his 2019 book, George and Me, Ridgeley admitted he had questions over Michael’s death. The coroner had ruled the star’s death as being due to a heart condition, and therefore not suspicious.

Ridgeley wrote: “He seemed to be in good health and there are conflicting reports surrounding that night that preceded his passing.

“That the circumstances of his death seemed unclear only compounded the distress. Without any real closure the grieving seemed terribly raw.

“A heart condition was eventually recorded as the cause of death, but there are still a number of questions. It now seems as if we may never know what really happened.”

A 90-minute film about Wham! will be released on Netflix on 5 July.

It aims to give a “genuinely authentic account” of the bands rise, told by former bandmates Ridgeley and the late Michael.

The full interview is in Radio Times, out now.

Additional reporting by Press Association