George Michael’s heartbroken soulmate reveals how he flushed the star’s secret hard drugs stash down the loo to try to end his crippling addiction.
Kenny Goss, who was with the music icon for almost 20 years, watched as Michael’s intake of crack cocaine, ecstasy and 25 joints a day helped destroy their relationship.
Goss, 58, said Sunday: “I would find drugs and flush everything down the toilet, thinking, ‘If I just get rid of it he won’t get more.’ He was absent-minded, so would just think he’d lost them.”
Goss spoke out to raise the profile of the pair’s charitable Goss-Michael Foundation. He has not been paid for this interview, but The Sun on Sunday has made a donation to the foundation.
Michael, 53, died of natural causes at home in Goring, Oxfordshire, on Christmas Day. He was found in Goss’ old bed.
He said: “He loved to sleep in my bedroom. It is on the second floor across from his. I’ve been told that in all the houses, there was still ‘Kenny’s room.’”
In our world-exclusive interview, Goss tells of his shock at the drug-fueled decline of the man he loved.
He said: “I don’t think George necessarily thought he’d die young, but every time I looked into his eyes I thought, ‘My God, I’m losing you, what is going on?’”
Goss also revealed how the singer’s last lover, Fadi Fawaz, delayed his funeral by arriving late and was snubbed by George’s family during the service.
He said: “I’ve no idea why Fadi would choose to be late. I didn’t say anything to him and he didn’t come to the wake.”
Goss went on to say Michael’s close pal Geri Horner was given her own private farewell to him in church — and that no hymns were sung.
Goss, who dated Michael from 1996 until 2011 and supported him until his death, learned of the tragedy as he ate dinner with family at his Texas home.
He said: “I picked up the phone and said, ‘Wow.’ I was in shock. I turned on the TV and it was on CNN. It was upsetting and surreal.”
Goss recalled how, when they first met, Wham! star Michael smoked only a small amount of dope.
He said: “That was a gateway drug to the others. But it escalated. At one point he was smoking 25 joints a day. I saw him smoke weed all the time but never hardcore drugs. I heavily disapproved so he wouldn’t be around me in that state. He shielded me and his family. He had another group of friends he’d do that with.”
Goss says Michael’s spiraling drug use led to clashes, with Michael hitting back over his lover’s boozing.
He said: “When I confronted him, he never denied it, never apologized. He was hard on me about drinking, because I developed a problem.”
Goss believes that if the pair had stayed together, they could now both be dead.
He said: “Of course I wish we’d never split up. But things would have had to change or we would both be dead. I wish we’d both been able to clean up. I started to have a drink problem at about 50. I couldn’t sleep, I drank to sleep, that’s when it all started. It fell apart.”
Goss added: “George would text saying he wished we were together still — like in the beginning. Our psychiatrist encouraged us to stay together even though it was a dysfunctional relationship. I asked him if I should leave George and he looked me in the eye and said, ‘I think you are the only reason George stays alive.’”
In 2008, Michael was caught in possession of crack in North London.
Six years later, he spent 18 months in rehab at the Kusnacht Practice in Switzerland.
Goss said: “I didn’t go to see him, very few people went. He’d call me and say, ‘Oh darling, I am still here at this miserable place.’ There was never a day I didn’t worry about him. Right until the end, I still loved him.”
Goss watched his partner’s health decline dramatically in the 20 years they knew each other and admits “many were waiting” for the day he died.
He also said weight gain upset Michael.
“When we met, he didn’t exercise,” he said. “But he’d do anything to lose weight, he’d go on SlimFast milkshakes. In his 40s he lived life a little bit heavier, but in the past five years he started gaining all this other weight. I don’t know why, maybe drugs, medicine or booze. He’d have the occasional wine when we were together but I’ve been told he started to drink a lot.”
Michael could go two months without contacting his closest friends and family, yet Goss still sent messages.
He said: “He sometimes suffered depression. I’d send messages reminding him he was loved. I’d say, ‘You’re a beautiful man. Remember the man you were when I met you, people love you.’ He didn’t like to be around people in general but in the last couple of years he rarely saw anyone. I’ve cried thinking, ‘Why didn’t you take better care of yourself?’ Maybe if he had, he’d still be with us.”