Boy George says he and George Michael ‘struggled to be friends’

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80s singer Boy George has said he “struggled to be friends” with George Michael.

The Culture Club singer, who was previously convicted of falsely imprisoning a male prostitute, says he often tried to avoid the Wham! legend.

Speaking to The Kyle And Jackie O Show on Friday, the 55-year-old said: “We struggled to be friends.”

Boy George said people would try to get them to spend time together, however they only really met through mutual friends.

“When we did get together it was normally through force,” he confessed.

He denied they had a bad relationship, though, saying: “Whenever we did meet we always got on really well.”

He previously told Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live that Michael “kept people out” during the final years of his life.

“I read stuff in the papers. But I never really knew really what – he really kept people out, he was quite private”, he told the show.

The two singers had exchanged regular insults during their early days in the music industry.

Boy George came out as gay long before George Michael, and it had been reported that he feuded over the Wham! singer’s reluctance to be out.

“We did, it wasn’t really a feud.

“In the ’80s, everyone – Peter Burns, me, we all used to be really bitchy about each other.

“It’s like the thing that you did in the ’80s with those pop magazines.

“Now it’s the housewives who do it!

“But in the ’80s, you just said vile things about everyone”, the singer, real name George O’Down, claimed.

“In the early days, we were competition to each other. Both called George, both made soul music.

“So in the early days, we were really in competition.

“Then sort of later on, I started to really appreciate him as a musician – you know, right around ‘Faith’.

“I started to really appreciate his talent.”

Boy George, who was convicted of using “gratuitous violence” to falsely imprison a male prostitute, has previously appeared to claim suicide Tweets about George Michael were true.

Fadi Fawaz, whose account the posts appeared on, said his account was hacked.

Referring to the comments, Boy George posted: “Ok. ‘My computer got hacked’ is like ‘I’m bisexual’ or ‘I’m sniffing because I have allergies!”

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