George Michael's sister slams Elton John’s claim the late singer was ‘uncomfortable’ with being gay: 'He was very proud to be gay'
The sister of the late pop icon George Michael has slammed claims made by Elton John who believes that Michael was 'uncomfortable' with his own sexuality.
While speaking to Sharon Osbourne on the show 'The Talk', Elton John had claimed that Michael was "so uncomfortable in his skin about being gay even though he said he wasn't". Michel's sister, Melanie Panayiotou, 55, has slammed these claims while speaking to The Big Issue. She shared that he was "my 'very-proud-to-be-gay' brother, contrary to what you may have read recently".
Michael's sexuality had been kept away from the spotlight until 1998 after he was arrested for performing a "lewd act" in front of an undercover police officer at Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills. While getting candid on his sexuality, the Wham! the singer had later said, "I never had a moral problem with being gay".
"I thought I had fallen in love with a woman... Then I fell in love with a man, and realized that none of those things had been love," he had said.
Elton John who had performed 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' along with Michael in 1991 had also shared that Michael "didn't want to be here" before his death. John spoke to Osbourne and shared, "He couldn't get it, George, and he resented the fact that I had hinted that maybe he change his life a little bit and he'd be happier if he tried something else".
"The person has actually got to want it. It's like me in the end; I really wanted it. I had two alternatives: one, to die, and one to live, and I wanted to live. But that's the difference if you want it, and poor George didn't want it," he continued.