Manager names cause of George Michael’s death

The New Daily
Dec 26, 2016, updated Dec 27, 2016

George Michael sold more than 100 million albums throughout a career spanning almost four decades. Photo: Getty.

UPDATE 10.15am AEDT

Pop star George Michael battled a “spiralling” heroin addiction, according to a UK media outlet.

An unnamed source has told The Telegraph newspaper that the pop legend had been battling an addiction over the past year and had been treated in hospital for an overdose.

The source told The Telegraph: “He’s been rushed to A&E on several occasions. He used heroin. I think it’s amazing he’s lasted as long as he has.”

The cause of Michael’s death, according to manager Michael Lipman was cardiac arrest, which can be common among heroin users.

A paparazzi picture of Michael, thought to be one of the last shots of him in public, shows a very different, bloated-looking Michael dining out in Oxfordshire in September.

https://twitter.com/ShellyRaihala/status/813428405559402496

Source: Twitter

EARLIER

British singer and pop music legend George Michael has died “peacefully at home” in England, with his manager Michael Lippman blaming heart failure as the cause of death.

Lippman said the singer was found “in bed, lying peacefully”, but did not offer further details on the incident.

An earlier statement from publicist Cindi Berger confirmed the singer’s death.

“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 statement said.

“The family would ask that their privacy be respected at this difficult and emotional time. There will be no further comment at this stage.”

George Michael in concert in 2012. Photo: Getty.

After visiting his Oxfordshire home, police said they were treating the death as unexplained, but that there were no suspicious circumstances, the BBC reported.

The 53-year-old was not known to be in ill health, but his health had been the subject of some recent media attention.

Between 2006 and 2010 he was arrested several times for drug-related offences and later admitted that he had cut back his daily Marijuana consumption.

Last year he was also forced to publicly deny new allegations about drug-taking, describing them as ”highly inaccurate”.

In late 2011, Michael almost died from pneumonia.

After receiving treatment in a hospital in Vienna, Austria, he made a tearful appearance outside his London home and said it had been ”touch and go” whether he lived.

Doctors had performed a tracheotomy to keep his airways open and he was unconscious for some of his spell in hospital.

Tributes flowed immediately for the star, with Sir Elton John declaring himself to be in “deep shock”, and fellow ’80s icons, Duran Duran tweeted their grief.