In an interview with BBC 5 Live this morning, David Furnish has said he's concerned for the health, state of mind and general wellbeing of singer George Michael.
Speaking on the Victoria Derbyshire programme on BBC Radio 5 live this morning, Elton John's partner David Furnish said George Michael's close friends have been in touch with the couple to ask them to help the former Wham star. According to Furnish Michael's friends are concerned for his health, state of mind and general wellbeing.
This follows an interview with Michael at the weekend in which he told Elton John to shut his mouth regarding Elton's publicly stated concern for Michael's health.
Furnish also confirmed his and Elton John's bid to adopt a Ukrainian child had failed but they would continue to support the child from the UK.
When asked about George Michael David Furnish replied: "The difficult thing for Elton and me is a lot of George's friends keep calling us saying 'you have to do something, George is in a bad way, he's in a bad state.' We're only reacting to what his close friends say to us. I respect George, I love George, I think he's a huge talent. I just hope he's fine, I hope he's well and his reaction is the press it is what it is. I just hope he's well and happy and continues to be the great artist he is.
"George has to want to help himself. If he wants help we're here for him, if he doesn't want help that's fine, that's his choice too, if he doesn’t think he needs help that's fine too."
When asked what Micheal's friends saying about his health, Furnish said: "They're saying that they're very concerned. A lot of people are saying it to us, we get it very very regularly, that they are concerned about his health, concerned about his state of mind and his wellbeing and that as Elton has been there and experienced sobriety now for 19 years, that perhaps he's best positioned to be able to help out. But if George feels he doesn't need help and his life is in check and balance, then maybe his friends are wrong. I haven’t seen him in such a long time, it's difficult to judge and pass comment."
Then, when talking about his and Elton's bid to adopt a Ukrainian baby, he said: "It's not possible, the laws won’t support the adoption. We are finding ways of supporting Lev and his brother from here, keeping them in their own country, making sure they have the best healthcare education and family options available to them. We would love to adopt them and bring them back to Britain but the laws don’t support us in that regard but we're going to do everything we can from here and keep them in their own country.
"We are gutted, massively gutted, hugely disappointed. We really felt we could make a huge difference in their lives but we'll make a difference from here and we'll do as much as we can from here and support them as much as we can and continue to campaign about these laws, I think there's a lot of things they need to catch up in terms of adoption and the status of a child that is HIV positive and what the status of adoption is in their home country and we want to get that human rights wrongness, that we see, improved. It won’t apply to Lev and his brother, we just want to get them out of the orphanage and with a good family as soon as possible, but for future children so they can have a better and smoother path."