George Michael's Dating History: A Look Back at the Late Singer's Relationships

George Michael had “faith” in his relationships.

The “Freedom! '90” singer briefly dated actress Brooke Shields in the 1980s, but the first love of his life was Brazilian designer Anselmo Feleppa, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1993.

“It’s very hard to be proud of your sexuality when it hasn’t given you any joy, but once you have found somebody you really love it’s not so tough,” Michael told Huffington Post in 2009.

Michael — who is the subject of two recent documentaries about his life and career, Netflix’s Wham! and George Michael: Portrait of an Artist — came out as gay in 1998, two years into his relationship with businessman Kenny Goss, which lasted until 2009.

“I spent the first half of my career being accused of being gay when I hadn’t had anything like a gay relationship. In fact, I was 27 before that happened to me,” he told CNN at the time, later saying he felt forced to reveal he was gay following his arrest in a Beverly Hills park.

After Michael’s death in December 2016, Goss told PEOPLE, “I’m heartbroken. ... He was a major part of my life and I loved him very, very much.” When he died, Michael was dating Fadi Fawaz; the hairdresser was the one who found the English singer-songwriter’s body at his country home.

Here’s a look back at George Michael’s dating history.

Brooke Shields

The Wham! singer briefly dated Brooke Shields in the 1980s after they were introduced by the actress’s mother, Teri Shields. The Blue Lagoon star spoke about their romance in her 2014 memoir, There Was a Little Girl, saying they never had a sexual relationship and that Michael “was so sweet to me. I was smitten just because he was so respectful and I didn’t feel pressured.”

The actress recalled going on a few dates with Michael in her memoir. One night, in the limo home after a party for Grace Jones, Shields thought she was about to lose her virginity to the “Father Figure” singer, but instead, Michael allegedly looked into her eyes and said, “I think we need to take a break. I need to concentrate on my career.”

Shields said she was devastated then but wrote, “In that era, nobody was coming out, and he was a sex symbol. So, I was harmless. We kind of laughed. He was funny. There’s a depth to him, too.”

The actress also wrote in her memoir that their relationship was "definitely one-sided.”

Anselmo Feleppa

Michael considered Brazilian designer Anselmo Feleppa his “first great love.”

The Wham! singer spotted Feleppa in the crowd while he was performing at the 1991 Rock in Rio concert. Michael would later tell Huffington Post that Feleppa “was so distracting I actually avoided that end of the stage.” After the show, the two met up in the singer’s dressing room, and their chemistry was instant.

Michael said Feleppa made him proud of his sexuality as a gay man, explaining that he “broke down my Victorian restraint and really showed me how to live, how to relax, how to enjoy life.”

“I was shagging around, but I had so little experience with men that my sex life was so ridiculously inadequate for me, right until I met Anselmo really,” he told the outlet. “He was the first person I had ever loved, and I discovered he loved me too.”

A few months into their relationship, however, Feleppa tested positive for HIV. In Michael’s final project before his death, a 2017 documentary titled George Michael: Freedom, the singer called the day “the darkest, most frightening time in my life.”

“Try to imagine that you fought with your own sexuality to the point that you’ve lost half of your twenties, and you’ve finally found a real love and six months in it’s devastated,” Michael recalled to Huffington Post. “In 1991, it was really terrifying news.”

In March 1993, Feleppa died of an AIDS-related illness at 36 years old. The day after Feleppa suffered a brain hemorrhage, Michael told his parents he was gay. "They didn't even know he existed. The thing that really killed my mum was the idea that I had gone through that without anybody," he told the outlet.

After Feleppa’s death, Michael fell into a state of depression that he described as “a deep black hole,” which only worsened after he lost his mother, Lesley Angold Panayiotou, to cancer in February 1997. “Losing your mother and your lover in the space of three years is a tough one,” he told The Independent.

Kenny Goss

Michael met Kenny Goss, a Texas-born businessman and former flight attendant, in May 1996 in Los Angeles. The “Last Christmas” singer came out as gay in 1998, telling CNN, “I want to say I have no problem with people knowing that I’m in a relationship with a man right now. I don’t feel any shame.”

After the Civil Partnerships Bill, which allowed same-sex couples to form civil partnerships, was announced in Britain in 2005, Michael told the Associated Press that he and Goss would “be doing the old legal thing, but we won’t be doing the whole veil and gown thing,” adding, “I’m not very romantic about it to be honest. I think Kenny probably would be if I let him, but it’s just not me.”

While on the British talk show Parkinson in May 2006, Michael reiterated his desire for a small wedding, noting, “I think from a legal point of view it’s essential to have the same safeguards that straight couples have. We’ve been together for 10 years. I think we’re entitled to that.”

However, Michael and Goss never wed and ultimately broke up in 2009. Goss later told The Sun that Michael still texted after him the split, saying he "wished we were together still — like in the beginning.” During a 2017 interview with The Dallas Morning News, Goss also said Michael was “truly the love of my life. And I think I was the love of his life.”

“We just had a really good, sweet relationship,” Goss added, noting their breakup was “just what it was. ... We weren’t even mad at each other or anything like that.”

It wasn’t until 2011 that Michael revealed during a concert at the Prague State Opera that he and Goss had been broken up for over two years. “The truth is my love life has been a lot more turbulent than I have let on. This is probably the first break-up song I’ve written,” he said while introducing his song, “Where I Hope You Are,” according to Reuters.

Goss and Michael remained friendly after their split. In a 2022 interview to promote George Michael: Portrait of an Artist, Goss credited his former partner for "giving me the tools that he gave me to move forward and do great things that most people don't get the opportunity to do.” He still heads The Goss-Michael Foundation, a non-profit arts organization that he and Michael established when they were together.

“The beautiful memories and music [Michael] brought to the world will always be an important part of my life and those who also loved and admired him,” Goss told PEOPLE shortly after Michael’s death.

Fadi Fawaz

At the time of his death, George Michael was romantically linked to celebrity hairstylist Fadi Fawaz.

Fawaz discovered Michael’s lifeless body at his country home in Goring-On-Thames on Christmas Day 2016. In the following days, Fawaz tweeted a number of tributes to his late boyfriend. (Fawaz’s account is not verified, but Michael did follow the account from his verified Twitter.)

“It’s a [Christmas] I will never forget — finding your partner dead peacefully in bed first thing in the morning. I will never stop missing you,” he tweeted on Dec. 26, adding a few days later, “We loved each other very much and we were together almost 24 hours a day. I hate you 2016 from the bottom of my heart."

Two months after the “I Want Your Sex” singer died, Fawaz spoke to the Daily Mirror from the steps of the home he and Michael had shared in London. He said the treatment he received in the weeks after Michael’s death was “very cruel,” noting he found it “tough, shocking and upsetting” to be vilified by the public but felt “vindicated” by a coroner’s report released in March 2017 that stated Michael died of natural causes. (Prior to the coroner's report, there had been speculation about Fawaz's involvement in Michael's death, despite local police treating it as “unsuspicious” early on.)

“I keep the happy times just him and me. I have managed for five years not to be famous,” he said. “I would like to go back to that. I am going to take it easy. Every day it has been horrible. At the moment I am just going to say, ‘Thank you, universe, for the truth.’ ”

Fawaz was arrested in July 2019 ​​on suspicion of aggravated criminal damage after he allegedly trashed Michael’s London mansion. According to The Sun, the late singer hadn’t left anything to Fawaz in his will, and the ex had a contentious relationship with some members of Michael’s family.