George Michael

The World mourns the pop icon who died on Christmas day.

- Laura Benjamin

Millions of George Michael fans were left devastated when the beloved pop icon died on Christmas Day at the age of 53.

The former Wham! star, who is believed to have suffered heart failure, was discovered dead in his bed by his boyfriend Fadi Fawaz just after lunchtime on 25 December at George’s home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.

“We were supposed to be going for Christmas lunch,” Fadi, 43, later said. “I went round to wake him up and he was just gone, lying peacefully in bed.

“We don’t know what happened yet. Everything had been very complicated recently but George was looking forward to Christmas and so was I. I want people to remember him the way he was. He was a beautiful person.”

As news of his untimely demise spread, shocked fans gathered outside the singer’s homes in Highgate in North London and in Oxfordshire to leave floral tributes and candles. George’s former Wham! bandmate Andrew Ridgeley, to whom he had remained close after the pop duo split in 1986, tweeted his grief.

Referring to George by his childhood nickname, he wrote: “Heartbroken at the loss of my beloved friend Yog. Me, his loved ones, his friends, the world of music, the world at large. 4ever loved.