“I was never jealous of George Michael!”

July 19, 2023

Andrew Ridgeley “never” would have blamed George Michael’s success.

Andrew Ridgeley stressed that he was never jealous of George Michael

The 60-year-old star was born as part of the 1980s pop duo Wham! alongside the late George, who died on Christmas Day 2016 aged 53. famous. However, he admitted that although his bandmate later went on to have a gargantuan solo career of his own, he could never harbor disdain for him because they were “best friends.”

On the Table Manners podcast, he told hosts Jessie and Lennie Ware, “He was my best friend. He was just as generous to me in many ways, and the affection we showed each other was genuine and enduring. It’s not my place to hold grudges, not towards him. And when it turned out that his talent was really developing and it was talent on an extraordinary scale, which was pretty early on, he literally exclaimed, “Wham Rap!” When I pulled out the bag, it was like, “Wow.”

Andrew added that he still “misses” George because they had such a “close bond” since they were in school when they first started performing together.

He added: “You miss every friend. I was very lucky, I didn’t lose many friends or many of my colleagues. Andy Leaver, he was in our first school band, he tragically died young and one or two others, but none that I was connected to that closely. Yes, of course there are moments when you wish you could still do something together. He is missed by many people in different ways.

“We had such a close bond that you can only really build a bond like that at school if you are so deeply immersed in each other. You learn together, play together and get totally lost in each other, and so were we. You don’t get that chance later in life.”