George Michael Heated Interview on Cruising, Homophobia, and the Press (2006) 

Agree 💯

I truly wish that the stories that the press make up are wrong, but I'm still seeing them many years after his death. Give this GENTLEMAN a break he's dead after all let him RIP.

Depends, was his partner OK with it?

You said it all. He was a wonderful human being.

Beautiful words

The story is alot like BOOGIE NIGHTS when Dirk went back to being a prostitute at the end

What did George expect? Not only was he a global superstar having sex with strangers in public places, he had never come out as gay, but was firmly hiding in the closet throughout those high-risk gay encounters. He was bound to be found out sooner or later, and when he was, it was bound to be a huge media story, due to the fact he'd been living a lie all his life, pretending to be straight! As the saying goes 'It's not the crime that gets you - it's the cover-up'. Sadly George was not much of a gay advocate - as his friend Elton John, among others, have pointed out. Why on earth didn't he come out as gay of his own accord? He could have been such a great role model for gay people. It's not like it was the 1960s when homosexuality was illegal, and stars like Rock Hudson and Liberace had to hide their true selves or literally have their life and career ended. George Michael had no excuse for staying silent, and actively posing as a straight man, 'lusting' after supermodels in his music videos, and conducting fake, unconsummated affairs with women in his real life, while hiding his intimate relationships with men. Why? He was hugely talented, with a fiercely loyal fan-base. He could have weathered the storm if he'd come out - indeed, he would undoubtedly have won himself more fans for his bravery. Instead he stayed silent, and the inevitable happened, the opportunity to come out was forever lost, because his public 'cruising' allowed the media to out him. The real reason he's so angry with journalists, is that they outed him as gay - but obviously it was only a matter of time, because he was not being discreet about his sexuality (far from it), and bizarrely, he had not come out himself. In truth he's holding a lot of anger against himself here, because it must have been very clear to him how badly he'd mishandled the whole thing for years. This interview is full of fake posturing and disingenuous claims of 'homophobia'. Utter garbage - if George Michael was caught 'dogging' with women on Hampstead Heath, it would be a huge media story. Any celebrity having sex in public, whatever their sexuality, would attract publicity! But George added massive fuel to the fire, by pretending to be straight for his entire career, before his arrest in a gents toilet. The public did not know he was gay - and that obviously made it a far bigger story. Hypocrisy and being caught in lies, is meat and drink to the news media, and in that regard George Michael was undoubtedly guilty as charged! One of the primary functions of a free press in a democracy, is to expose hypocrisy among the powerful. They fulfilled this very important brief with aplomb, with George Michael. There are many innocent victims of gutter journalism, but George Michael is not one of them. Frankly he got everything he deserved.

sounds like your gay

You wish mate

Said the gay ​@@EscapeFromDaSystem

Fr

They're stuck in a heterosexual program *the matrix

👏🙌

I giggled when he said that and I was thinking “smart man! Fill the whole video with it,so they have nothing left to show the public if they did edit it”

Ironically gay men are the biggest buyer of those gossip rags. Don't bs yourself

Classic trash

@@michaelm3943 Michael i am a big hip hop head ,but I am 46 and I like Georges music aswell. Because my mum used to blast it when I was young aswell and dance all over the house. She is no longer here so people like music for so many reasons . Sorry if you are not a fan.👍

Well the media are liars, about all of us. They are just looking for a headline - don't stop reading them - STOP BELIEVING THEM. No I take that back STOP BUYING THEM.

Not necessarily he was a rich, miserable man. He did have a great gift and was never really happy. Then he killed himself, the ultimate selfish act.

No HE was messed up and gay! - Demonic!!!

@@sherryweems8579 what a disgusting thing to say. so if someone is depressed they should keep themselves in a state of depression to make idiots like you happy? YOU are selfish, not him.

@@sherryweems8579How did he “kill himself”?

⁠@@sherryweems8579How did he “kill himself”?

Why are you married with 3 children? You should marry adults. You're sick.

You're definitely not alone. I will regret forever not seeing him in concert. 😢

And me​@@TheGemini5

And me 😢

i just vomited

One can only wonder and hope that he made peace with God for his vulgar proclivities .

Мне глубоко кем он был это его личное мнение и желание.эти.сми я их ненавижу готовы ко всем влезть в трусы никакого такта.и скажу его люди любят таким.какой он есть.его музыку голос и человека.

I was one of his earliest fans. He is not a great man. Just a dead singer.

@@Annapurna818 ​really??? So how come he was inducted to Rock n Roll hall of fame with more than 1 million votes last year and a coin was introduced in UK this month in honour of him? 😂

@@Annapurna818the great part is that we will say the same thing about you one day. The difference? Drop the singer part and also no one cares about you. RIP George❤

George Michael was right about one thing - his music will live on. But I do think it's hilarious he's indignant that journalists reported him having sex with strangers in public. Did he really think he could do that and it not get headlines? And let's not forget, George had never come out as gay, when he was having those high risk sexual encounters with random men in public toilets. So there's the issue of his hypocrisy too - George never came out, he was outed by the media, because he got himself arrested. At the time the public believed he was straight - which made it a far bigger news story. It's actually very concerning that he worked so hard, for so long, to appear straight - it suggests he never had any intention of coming out as gay, and had he not been caught cruising would simply have continued to play the heterosexual star. Which in the modern world, which is accepting of gay people (especially celebs), is bizarre. If he had only gone public on his homosexuality years earlier, he could have been a positive role model for so many gay people. The fact he instead firmly hid in the closet, suggests he was ashamed of being gay - hardly a great advocate for the gay community! He also gave the media the power to 'out' him - hypocrisy is meat and drink to newspapers, and George Michael was certainly guilty of that. He gave the media a gift! He must have been kicking himself that instead of coming out of his own accord and being in control of the story, he had been outed by the media due to his own behaviour and resulting arrest. That gave the scandal so much more power.

Gay men were the biggest buyer of those gossip rags and still are.

Well that's kind of disheartening as I'm gay and I find it so inspiring he lived his truth in such ignorant times. plus we've barely moved on from this

@@sayno2lolzisbackthen why are you people so hell bent and obsessed, about shoving your alphabet rainbow mafia nonsense down children’s throats? Why? Why is it so important, discussing your sexuality in front of little children? Or anyone, for that matter. Maybe you personally don’t do that, but many, many do. Why are teachers “coming out” in front of their kindergarten students? And if you deny that happening, that makes it even more disturbing. Live your life, fine, but keep children out of it, it’s disturbing seeing exactly what I said play out across my country. Pride parades across America, literally chanting “we’re coming for your kids”, it’s not winning anyone over when people say crap like that. My sexuality isn’t my identity, and neither should yours be. Straight people don’t have “straight pride” parades, that’d be silly and unnecessary. You also have straight pride month, another ridiculous attempt at indoctrination, you people have become a cult. And then you act shocked, when you get flack for it. It’s bizarre.

@@sayno2lolzisback How did George Michael 'live his truth'? He was a gay superstar firmly hiding in the closet and pretending to be heterosexual, until he was outed by his arrest for chasing gay sex in public places. That's not 'living his truth' - it's living a lie! To be clear - George Michael never came out as gay. He was a global star for 16 years, and only reluctantly, and very belatedly admitted he was gay in 1998 when the jig was up, because the LA Police had outed him. The fact he had hidden his homosexuality, made his arrest a much bigger story. Why on earth didn't he admit what all his friends already knew - he was gay? In 1998 it was not a big deal, it was a tolerant age and a tolerant profession in which to be gay, as one of his best friends, out and proud pop legend Sir Elton John, said at the time. George could have made a brief, dignified statement that he was gay long before 1998, and his loyal fan base would have stood by him. More importantly, he would have given a much-needed boost to the gay community, encouraging young people to follow his example and have the courage to be their true, authentic selves too. Such a move by George Michael would have won him universal praise. But instead he stayed firmly in the closet, only owning his homosexuality reactively, as a result of his arrest. He was no role model or champion of the gay community and unsurprisingly, many gay people felt let down by his years of deception and denial.

I used to say that it was no surprise and no big deal that George was gay. The only newsworthy item was finding out that Andrew Ridgely was straight.

@@kimbrightman4381 His bravery and defiance against total ignorance is admirable, inspirational, and definitely newsworthy. He's among a legendary group of queer people who threw themselves on the sacrificial pyre to make things better for future generations (he even acknowledges he's doing this in the interview). I know people mean well when comments like that are made but they are quite detached from the reality of what's going on.

He was horny!😁😁😁😁😁I would have loved to have met him to share his horniness 😁

Yep. I mean, the media also did the same to Michael Jackson, Britney, etc.

Media is just like the common people. They see something surpeficially, and instead of thinking what happened and go deep, we judge the situation or person as right or wrong instanly, like we aint sinners and saints at the same time too. Instead of holding ourselves acountable for our own personal actions, we blame everyone for the bad things in society and judge them.

BS

@@marcosmartinez8088 IKR.

It will live on for as long as the human race does and thats a blink of an eye in reality

He was 43 here my hero you Will be favorit he'never be forgotten

Missing the point of this numbuts

Jitterbug. Jitterbug. Wake me up before you go-go, don't keep me hanging on like a yo-yo. Genius level.

No it wont

Absolutely 💯. Thanks for your words ❤️

Thank you for your wise words. We love and respect George because of his great talent, soul and heart and that's whar matters not to judge his private life.🙏🏼😇🙋🏻‍♀️😘❤😍

@@rosalbaroblestapia9517 Honestly, no one allows anyone to pry into their private life. The private sphere is the person's private life. Everyone protects their own peace, only we will never be as famous and fantastic as him. A super guy who is still everyone's idol to this day. One does not choose love, it comes to whom it is like, to whom it is like. I think he would have been happy if they had left him alone, because he belonged to everyone on the stage and in the videos he still belongs to everyone (who loves him), otherwise his private life is his! I love it anyway!

You watched it then? So why did you?

Check out Ren. Limitless talent and great guy.

Well said. You've hit the nail right on the head.

Though it is funny to think a famous pop singer could be reduced to blowing guys in a bathroom like a common drug addict bum

If George Michael had only come out publicly as the gay man his friends knew and loved, instead of hiding in the closet for 16 years pretending to be straight - and betraying the gay community - news of his cruising activities would not have had half so much media impact! The issue was not his homosexuality, but his hypocrisy. It was the fact he had lived a lie and presented an entirely false public image as a straight man for his entire career, that was the story. As the old saying goes "It's not the crime that gets you, it's the cover up". His disingenuous cries of 'homophobia' in this interview as he plays the victim, are a cynical ploy for undeserved sympathy. He would have triggered exactly the same level of media interest had he been caught 'dogging' with strange women - as he well knew! George Michael was famous from the age of 18, he understood how the media worked, and he played it like a champ. But he was used to being in control of his image and his publicity. Living a lie for so long made him vulnerable to negative publicity - it would always catch up with him at some point. His arrest in a public toilet was that moment. A star who has sex with strangers in public will inevitably get major headlines - but when in addition it exposes a fundamental fraud, the story will run and run! When he was caught having public sex with men, he handed journalists the power to to 'out' him, and to mock and ridicule him for his duplicity. Sadly his deception inevitably brought unfair mockery of all gay people. George Michael should be eating humble pie in this interview, and apologising to the gay community he did such a disservice to with his fake, 16-year, heterosexual act.

@@glamdolly30 yep

​@@glamdolly30totally disagree, nobody 'deserves' to be lied about, complete nonsense.

I think the press was behaving like that because he was a successful foreigner.

@@borisnegrarosa9113 Indeed. They were looking to find something wrong with him, because he was too charming and charismatic, also happy with the way he lived, so instead of understanding him, they wanted to make him feel bad.

I don't get it. Gorgeous? I guess I'm crazy.

@@Alec-Al nice to know you disagree with most people

​​@@eboiman6082most people or only you 2-3 people? 😂

I do respect George Michael for this interview, however I will never forgive him for "wake me ip before you go go".

@@DavidHarvey-po9le 😂🤣😂 the perfect song for prison time. 😂

@@DavidHarvey-po9le "Wank me off before you go go".

My son was the one who told me also. I went outside and sat on the porch crying my eyes out. He was an angel gifted to us for a short time. ❤

I remember that day… so sad. I watched him on UTUBE for days😔

The media is the reason many of them are built up to be gods in the eyes of many including themselves. Some of them need to be brought down to earth especially if they committed crimes and think they should get away with it or special treatment just because they're famous. Not saying this in George Michael's case because he didn't do anything wrong as far as I know.

@@Piolin333 The media still needs to say sorry to those celebs tho.

@@karlc2869 why do they owe apology to celebs. Are you like many people especially Americans who tend to hero worship just because someone is famous? I admire the work athletes and entertainers put in but I don't worship any. I'm a huge sports fan and have met many pro athletes but never asked for autograph. They are no better than us just famous. And if they committed crimes and media did their part and reported on it they owe no apologies. Digging into personal lives comes with the territory unfortunately. Price of fame.

@@Piolin333 They are still human like I said.

@@karlc2869 yes. And we all sin and make mistakes. I'm saying many celebrities have benefitted from the attention of the media but don't like it when they receive negative publicity if they did something wrong. Gotta take the good with the bad. Hate the stupid TMZ and celebrity gossip shows and yes they should be sued if they print and report something false. But reporting something that is true like being accused of convicted of a crime by law enforcement is the media's job. Yes if it was a long time ago and they have served their time and changed yes the media should let them be but don't need to apologize if what they reported was true.

I read ovulation hahaha

Indeed. He was so patient with her. Nina Hossain is a very experienced interviewer (still fronting ITN bulletins today!) but sadly has a tendency to either interrupt her guests (not in this case, to be fair) or to projecting and reveal her own views as being rather conservative and judgemental (very much in this case, sadly). By the end of this, she seemed to still feel that George Michael was somehow subjecting himself to dangerous, dirty, unsafe sex with unsavoury individuals, despite him explaining that he was getting good encounters with beautiful individuals and enjoying great sex and good times talking to people he knows under the stars in front of camp fires (which presumably, when you're a superstar, is a refreshing change from people gawping and asking for autographs). I feel sad that a good man, who did so much for others, for good causes, and just wanted to do his own thing, was tormented by the media and ended up only living another 10 years in relative seclusion as a result.

​@@iangrant3615He only lived another 10 years because of his substance abuse problems. Interesting how you are bemoaning someone for being conservative and then talking about being judgemental. Talk about hypocrisy. I guess they should hope society and their loved one's go down the same path as Michael.

@@mr.brenman2132 substance abuse problems fuelled by how frustrated he felt by the way he was judged and pursued by the media, and his health took a major setback five years earlier when he spent three weeks in a coma recovering from a bad type of pneumonia which weakened him permanently. His reliance on alcohol and drugs came from grief and depression/stress.

The man lead a disgusting, spiritually destructive lifestyle.

@@mr.brenman2132….and his substance abuse problems were because of ?

I wish there is somewhere some wonderful video footage of David Lee Roth talking with George Michael. Maybe David is always over flamboyant but I see a very similar human and truly wonderful way of analysing a subject between him and George. Pleasure to hear English language at its best.

No way

Slow down with that one!

​@@chinering23hey,you...Angel?

​@@chinering23this is his way,not yours problem

His private life turned public when he's caught in a public restroom with his voyeuristic nonsense behavior.

Yes, but it was an entrapment@@clifforddriver9434

​why are the police flirting with men to get a response in a public space. America. If you'd paid any attention to this interview it's regarding perfectly legal behaviour in Britain. Also I'm certain it had little to do with voyeurism, not saying that voyeurism isn't participation but legally it might not hold up in court. But who knows what holds up in US courts anyways. So you don't like cruising. Okay. Good for you. I don't like sardines. Gross. Little bones sticking everywhere. It's vile really.

GEORGE IS SPOT ON, TONS OF HETEROSEXUAL MEN LIVING DOUBLE LIVES IN SECRET BEHIND THEIR SPOUSES BACK, JUST LOOK WHATS GOING ON IN YOUR LOCAL PORN THEATER! IF ONLY THEIR WIVES COULD SEE THERE WOULD BE DIVORCES GALORE

@@clifforddriver9434absolute rubbish it’s got nothing to do with anyone else that’s the whole point he is making.

How unfortunate to have to have an extended conversation and interview about one’s sex life…

They went to far he had to take legal action and this is basically a warning to stop really simple.

He gave away many millions of dollars to charities annonymously and it was not revealed till after he died.

Rupert Murdoch owe every celeb an apology.

They are still totally out of control!!!!

@@MrMjolnir009 Right.

He still does. He is backing a genocide in Palestine, and thinks persuing a fabulously talented man for headlines is ok. Let's talk about duality and complicitness. George had no case to answer, fab man and talented and much missed

I love that he was absolutely relentless with the message he wanted to convey. He was brilliant in how he refused to let the interviewer force him into a line of questioning that would make him contradict himself. If he wasn’t a fabulous singer, he would have been an amazing attorney.

@@christinagipperich2780 💯 agree

Agreed. Britney, MJ, George, Princess Diana, LiLo, Amanda Bynes, Paris, Miley, the Olsen twins, Megan Fox, etc. deserve media apologies.

If you listed to the beginning of his interview - he say's he'd rather not have to explain himself.

@@spottydog4477 then why did he?

The frustration he was having in this interview is so evident that this Emma person does not know how to conduct a proper interview and I hope to God that she still isn't trying to interview people. RIP George your Fans still miss you and hope you finally have found your PEACE 💕 JUST REMEMBER WE LOST PRINCESS DIANA FROM THE OVER ZEALOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS. When is this all going to stop???

he explains it in the interview @@startracker5895

He was setting the record straight. He had called the TV station to deny the story. Instead, the TV station added to it, thus the interview.

When weren't they?!

@@81tabbycat So true, but I didn't know better back then🤷‍♀️

Me too I miss him

No pun intended lol

Mind you,if a top female,or even male celebrity,was publicly dogging,the press wouldn’t hold back,I don’t think it was necessarily homophobia,and what he said about females sexuality is incredibly ignorant,considering the history of females and sex,although there’s no defence of how the tabloid press behaves and what they write.

That's so hot.

Me too❤

True, it wasn’t good for George’s physical and mental health to be doing those things, but I can understand his disdain of the media. But straight celebrities sex lives are also fodder for the tabloids.

​@@MostopinionatedmanofalltimeExactly 💯💯👍

Absolutely

Any yet you’d argue that a male can be a female if they’re trans identified. I’d argue they wouldn’t understand what it means to be a woman.

@@mattb6704 Yeah is it not strange how that works,

​@@mattb6704 Why do you assume that this person would argue that? Based on their comment I would think the opposite is true lol

Would that be up or down, and don’t get me wrong I hope things worked out for him and I definitely remember him in my prayers when I heard of his passing

Sadly she understood, but just didn't agree with his behaviour and actions I feel. I think she felt that cruising was dirty and wrong. I'd be happily corrected by her if she could explain why she was so reactionary and persistent in her parroting of the views of 'some people' that she kept on repeating throughout the whole piece. Very annoying and I don't know how he didn't walk out.

​@iangrant3615 100% agree with what you say. I felt the same and I too was shocked he didn't walk out! I felt she was ignorant, not properly listening/understanding what he was saying. Made me want to scream at her watching it!

@@iangrant3615 I wonder if she bases what she does in her personal life on what ‘some people’, who disapprove, think of it. So eyeroll-worthy.

Exactly. It’s scary she seems to have such outdated views, implying anything outside of an exclusive/monogamous relationship is scandalous, in the early 2000s.

She sounds like my mother

Agreed. There is a sense that perhaps ITN are choosing to put up old content that makes people they don't like look bad, and those that they do like look better?

Agree 💯