Speaking to the Mirror, Simon Napier-Bell revealed his beliefs that the former Wham! singer was battling a secret childhood trauma that have him his creativity, and led to his drug use.
During his life, Michael was open about the struggles that he faced following deaths of his mother, Lesley, and his then lover, Anselmo Feleppa. However, his former manager thinks that there was something that he was hiding, and that the “real upset” had happened before these deaths.
Speaking about how this secret trauma affected Michael’s creativity, Napier-Bell dismissed thoughts that it was the death of Michael’s mother and lover: “That wasn’t the problem, that didn’t cause George Michael’s creativity. It was childhood trauma that happens well before you’re 12 or 13.
“He obviously looked very much inside himself but he never told anybody whatever it was that triggered it. He didn’t tell the public and he may not have even told himself, because that’s another thing that happens to people, they feel a huge disquiet and they want to not look at it.”
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Despite Michael being arrested for possession of Class A drugs, and admitting to smoke 25 joints of marijuana a day, Napier-Bell said that he didn’t do any drugs when he was a part of Wham!
However, he went on to say: “I knew there were a lot of drugs about and if somebody is doing drugs at a level which could kill them, I suppose it is semi-suicidal. You’re flirting with it.
“It’s like somebody who drives at 130mph when they’re drunk. They’re not trying to commit suicide but if they thought logically for a minute they would have to say they don’t really care much for life if they are doing that.”
Drug abuse was initially thought to be the reason for Michael’s death on Christmas Day in 2016, but a coroner later ruled that he died of natural causes.
Napier-Bell then continued with his theory, and referred to one of Michael’s road accidents saying: “You don’t fall out a Ranger [sic] Rover going 80mph by accident.
“It might be an accident but you must have been doing something damn silly to make the accident happen.
“You knew there was an instability there that one day would go just an inch further in the wrong direction and something would happen. Which is probably what did happen.”
However, Napier-Bell then stressed that he didn’t “for one second think it’s suicide in the conventional idea of what suicide is.”
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