Boy George claims George Michael ‘kept people out’ at the end of his life

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80s singer and former prisoner Boy George has opened up about his relationship with George Micheal in his final years.

The Culture Club performer told a chat show 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 Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live.

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.

George Michael’s boyfriend Fadi Fawaz claimed that messages posted from his Twitter account suggesting his partner’s death was a suicide were the result of “hackers”.

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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Meanwhile George Michael’s cousin claimed the star had been “dragged back to the dark side” with drugs in his later years.

The star died age 53 on Christmas Day at his home in Oxfordshire.

The post-mortem is yet to be confirmed.