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How did George Michael die?
George Michael
June 25, 1963 — December 25, 2016
Goring-on-Thames, England
George Michael died on December 25, 2016 in Goring-on-Thames, England, aged 53. The official cause of death was dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and a fatty liver; natural causes. Readers have raised 3 theories about how it happened.
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou was born in East Finchley to a Greek Cypriot restaurateur and an English dancer, met Andrew Ridgeley at school in Bushey when he was twelve, and was the most famous pop star in Britain by twenty-one. He was fifty-three when his partner found him dead in bed on Christmas morning, in his house by the Thames, with "Last Christmas" playing in every shop in the country.
Wham! sold thirty million records and he walked away from it to make Faith, which sold twenty-five million on its own and made him, for a couple of years, the biggest male solo act in the world. Then he sued Sony to get out of his contract and lost, was arrested in a Beverly Hills public toilet in 1998 and turned it into a video, came out, and spent the rest of his life being more candid about sex, drugs, and grief than any star of his size has ever been. He gave away enormous amounts of money and insisted nobody write about it. The stories came out after he died: the nurse whose IVF he paid for, the woman on a game show he quietly sent £15,000.
He is survived by his sisters, and by his partner at the time of his death, Fadi Fawaz, who found him.
Photos with George
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The record
What is established, from the authorities and the people who were there.
Official cause: Dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and a fatty liver; natural causes (Oxfordshire coroner, March 7, 2017)
He was found dead in bed at his home in Goring-on-Thames on the morning of December 25, 2016, by his partner, Fadi Fawaz, who said he had slept in his car outside and come in to wake him for a Christmas lunch. Thames Valley Police said the death was unexplained but not suspicious. He was 53.
A first post-mortem was inconclusive, and the cause was not announced for ten weeks. During that time newspapers reported on his history with cannabis, crack cocaine, GHB, and a 2011 near-fatal bout of pneumonia, and on Fawaz's changing accounts of the night.
On March 7, 2017, the Oxfordshire senior coroner announced that he had died of natural causes: dilated cardiomyopathy (an enlarged, weakened heart), with myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and a fatty liver. No inquest was held, which under English law means the coroner was satisfied there was nothing further to investigate. The toxicology report was not made public.
What happened
The cause of death has been confirmed. The theories below are how readers understand it, and what people thought before it was known. Everyone here is anonymous.
He was 53, found on Christmas morning by a partner who'd slept in his car, and the cause took ten weeks. The coroner said natural causes and closed it. Was it his heart, his liver, or the years that got him there?
The page creator
- Confirmed47 of 52 readers find this likely
A weakened, inflamed heart that stopped in his sleep
The coroner's finding, with the mechanism filled in. An enlarged heart with active inflammation is a heart prone to a sudden fatal rhythm, especially during sleep, when breathing slows and oxygen drops. There's no need for anything to have happened that night. The years before it are a different question.
Anonymous. Says they are a cardiologist.
Confirmed by the Oxfordshire coroner, March 2017.
- Also raised39 of 47 readers find this likely
The heart disease was built by years of drugs and drink, and the coroner said so politely
Cardiomyopathy and fatty liver together, in a man who had talked openly about crack and cannabis and alcohol, describe a body worn down by use. "Natural causes" is accurate and also kind. This reading accepts the finding completely and adds the history the finding leaves out.
Anonymous.
- Also raised22 of 40 readers find this likely
Something that night, with a toxicology report that was never published
Ten weeks of silence, a partner whose story changed, an inconclusive first post-mortem, and a decision not to hold an inquest. A drug taken that night could have tipped a weak heart over the edge without being the "cause" in the coroner's sense. The coroner was satisfied; the public never saw what he saw.
Anonymous.
- Also raised16 of 30 readers find this likely
A heart damaged by the 2011 pneumonia
He nearly died of pneumonia in Vienna in 2011 and had a tracheotomy. Severe infections can leave the heart muscle inflamed or scarred, and myocarditis years later is not unheard of. A medical rather than a moral explanation, and compatible with everything the coroner found.
Anonymous. Says they are a respiratory nurse.
The confirmed cause carries this mark and stays at the top. Theories can still be added; they sort below it.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is a heart that has stretched and weakened until it pumps poorly; it can be inherited, caused by a viral infection, or caused over years by alcohol and other drugs. Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, often from a virus, and it can trigger fatal rhythm problems with little warning, particularly in a heart that is already enlarged. A fatty liver, in a man who had been open about heavy drinking and drug use, usually means exactly that.
"Natural causes" in a coroner's finding means the death came from disease, not from an injury, a drug acting at the time, or another person. It does not mean the disease had no history. The coroner found no need for an inquest, which is why the toxicology has never been published and why the question on this page is still open to readers.
Oxfordshire Coroner's statement, March 7, 2017 Thames Valley Police statements, December 2016 The Guardian and BBC coverage, December 2016 – March 2017 Wikipedia, "George Michael"
Questions people ask
- What was George Michael's cause of death?
- The official cause of death was dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and a fatty liver; natural causes.
- When did George Michael die?
- George died on December 25, 2016, at the age of 53, in Goring-on-Thames, England.
- What happened to George Michael?
- 4 theories have been raised on this page and ranked by readers. The cause is settled; the theories are about understanding how it happened.
- Who else died in 2016?
- See everyone on Ohbit who died in 2016. George was 53.
Add a theory
Say what you think happened and why. You’re anonymous. If you have a reason to know (you were there, you do this for a living), you can say so.