Last year on season 4 of Vanderpump Rules we learned that 24-year-old star James Kennedy had a very close connection with pop icon, George Michael (real name Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou).
George was his father’s childhood friend, best man at his 1991 wedding and James’ and his brother Harry’s Godfather.
Sadly uncle George was found dead today on Christmas at his home in Goring in Oxfordshire, England. He was 53.
“It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved son, brother and friend George passed away peacefully at home over the Christmas period,” his publicist Connie Filippello said in a statement. “The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. There will be no further comment at this stage.”
My brother told me when he walked in my front door today. I told him I had a feeling we would hear the headline about George Michael passing any day now given reports about his continuing drug use from his close friends.
According to a police statement: “Thames Valley Police were called to a property in Goring-on-Thames shortly before 2 p.m. Christmas Day. Sadly, a 53-year-old man was confirmed deceased at the scene. At this stage the death is being treated as unexplained but not suspicious.”
Recall last year we learned that James father, 54-year-old Andros Georgiou was no longer speaking with George as a result of George’s reckless and destructive behavior. Andros spoke publicly about his concern for his friend and Michael consequently stopped speaking to him.
James’ mother Jackie Georgiou told The Sun of Britain in 2012,
“He was smoking crack. Before he went away, he got to the point where he would be shaking, saying, ‘I need it,’” “There were parties where he was taking drugs and collapsing and being picked up off the floor,”
“Waking up in vomit, horrible things. He was so thin, so ill.” “It’s crack, it’s marijuana, it’s drink, it’s coke. It was pretty dark and things were getting darker. He was going to end up locked up or dead. I’m petrified he will die.”
“On special occasions he’d take ecstasy and start break dancing. At first he hated cocaine. Then he got deeper and deeper into the harder stuff. It was a gradual demise.”
Although nothing has been said about an overdose yet I expect the autopsy will show some sort of substance in his system given his downward trajectory over the last few years.
Looks like Kennedy’s Twitter account has been deactivated so I’m not sure if that was done as a result of George Michael’s death or for some other reason.
Michael was in the middle of filming a documentary project about his music called Freedom that was expected to air in March of 2017.
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