George Michael: ‘Prison time changed my life’

George Michael has revealed that his short time in prison changed his life.

The singer said that the four weeks he spent in London’s Pentonville prison brought him out of “denial”.

Discussing the period on BBC Radio 2’s Up Close with George Michael, he said: “I was put in with the paedophiles and the bullies. I didn’t leave my cell very much in those few days.”

Michael was given a custodial sentence in 2010 after crashing his car while under the influence of drugs.

“It shook me out of my denial,” he admitted. “Probably because there was a chance that I had to go to prison. From the day after that crash happened, I started in drug counselling, none of which I made public.”

Meanwhile, the Careless Whisper singer said that his “gay life didn’t get easier” after coming out in 1998.

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