George Michael Quietly Gave Away His $200 Million Fortune Before His Tragic Death
Stories of legendary celebrity entertainers secretly giving away their money to those in need are sometimes kept a secret, if often revealed a while after their deaths. No doubt many other stories are out there yet to be revealed. Yet, George Michael is one who happened to have his largess reported not long after his passing.
Following his death on Christmas Day of 2016, news came out about how generous he really was. It turns out it was much, much more than the public ever knew. One could say it was more generosity than any celebrity had ever done.
Take a look at the incredible things he did to make lives better for numerous individuals.
Numerous acts of generosity anonymously
George Michael was always astute to what was going on, including watching all the top pop culture shows of the day. Much of Michael’s charitable acts were the result of him just hearing randomly about a person dealing with a specific financial issue.
A famous one revealed by The Daily Mail back in late 2016 was when Michael saw the story of a woman on the game show Deal or No Deal. The woman needed IVF treatment, but mentioned she did not have the financial resources to have it done. Upon seeing this, Michael contacted the show and secretly wired the woman the money.
She never knew who donated the money until later finding out and tweeting about it after Michael’s death. It opened a goldmine of other stories that soon came out about how much of his reported $200 million fortune he gave away before his untimely passing.
This is only one story out of dozens, including Michael taking time out to volunteer in some capacity to help those in need without somehow being noticed.
Giving back to charities and the homeless
According to the above Daily Mail report, Michael also volunteered at a homeless shelter once, if asking not to reveal himself at the time. He also did other random acts of donations to strangers, including tipping a barmaid a large sum, per Smooth Radio, because she was studying to become a nurse and was in debt.
Michael was clearly not a superstar stuck alone in a mansion and never interacting in the real world. Above all, he understood the importance of how other organizations help other people. His giving back to HIV charities was noted as well, if also other charities not known until now.
One of those was Childline, says Independent, an organization devoted to helping helpless children in the U.K. Michael had stipulated his name remain anonymous after donating his royalties from his famous hit Jesus to a Child.
As part of this, he also gave to numerous cancer charities and in support of NHS nurses. His own mother died of cancer in 1997, something that moved him toward giving back more, something he never relented on.
Will this give a new view of George Michael?
For years, it was known that George Michael lived a bit of an extravagant life. Based on this, too many apparently thought he lived high rather than really giving back to the world.
With the above stories, it was clear he was more generous above any expectation, according to The Mirror. Doing this might sound rare, if other stories available, perhaps going on now with various superstars.
No one should assume reports of wild spending in an individual means no private stories of giving millions to those in need. With stories like that coming out about past notables, hopefully more will be told eventually.
What no one wants is a notable to die far too young for those stories to come out publicly.
