Legendary singer George Michael may have passed, but his kindness lives on. The 53-year-old musician never said much about his charitable side, but he apparently donated millions to charity.
After Michael’s tragic passing, people began coming forward and sharing stories about the singer’s charitable acts. He was a humble philanthropist, and only now are we finding out.
Michael’s website noted that most of his charity work was undocumented. According to the site, he donated all of the royalties from Wham!’s single “Last Christmas/Everything She Wants” to Ethiopian famine relief. He also donated the proceeds from “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” to the Aids hospice, London Lighthouse, and the children’s charity, the Rainbow Trust. He worked with Red Hot, the Aids research charity, and made regular appearances for charity shows. Still, no one knew the true scope of Michael’s philanthropy until Richard Osmond, the host of Deal Or No Deal came forward.
Osmond was the first to share sweet story of Michael’s kindness and opened the floodgates for those the singer had helped to come forward and share. Apparently, Michael donated £15k to a woman who lost the show but had wanted to use the money to get IVF treatment.
“A woman on ‘Deal Or No Deal’ told us she needed £15k for IVF treatment. George Michael secretly phoned the next day and gave her the £15k,” he said.
Michael had also donated millions to the children’s charity, Childline. The charity’s founder, Dame Esther Rantzen, told the Press Association that the singer was determined to keep his donations quiet.
“For years now he has been the most extraordinarily generous philanthropist…” said Rantzen. “Over the years he gave us millions and we were planning next year, as part of our 30th anniversary celebrations to create, we hoped, a big concert in tribute to him — to his artistry, to his wonderful musicality but also to thank him for the 100s of 1,000s of children he helped through supporting Childline.”
In addition to giving millions to Childline, a member of the Terrence Higgins Trust revealed that Michael had supported the organization for many years after he lost his partner Anselmo Feleppa to HIV.
There were no bounds in the ways Michael decided to give back, even helping on a small scale when he could. He threw a free concert to NHS nurses as a thank you for looking after his mother before she died and volunteered anonymously at a homeless shelter.
https://twitter.com/EmilyneMondo/status/813319244242817025
Michael once tipped a waitress £5k because she was a student nurse in debt. When he paid his bill, he asked another waitress to give her the check after he left.
https://twitter.com/salihughes/status/813348024063852544?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
George Michael was the only star on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire that decided to pay the cash to charity even if he lost.
https://twitter.com/salihughes/status/813348290645422080
As more people come forward, it’s clear that Michael was a deeply kind man who used his fortune to make the world a better place. He will be greatly missed.
