I spent years growing up being told what my sexuality was.

This was absolutely an attack on [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair, principally, and the perspective which is really predominant in Europe right now that he's not questioning enough of Mr. Bush's policies.

I suppose maybe if I had been an attractive child, I would have had less inclination to push my physical presence.

We [with Andrew Ridgeley] were getting so much attention and achieving such success. It never really bothered me.

It does bother me when they [tabloids] drag friends of mine into it and talk about them and lie about them. My friends have no part in it; they're not celebrities, so why should they have to accept the downside of celebrity? That worries me for a bit.

George was the easy part. As for Michael, I had always liked the name, and my father's brother is named Michael. I thought it was a good idea because there are a lot of Greeks in England with the second name of Michael; as a child I had a Greek friend whose second name was Michael. It was like getting the name that I wanted without having to get rid of the Greek element.

By the time I was in my early teens, we were able to move into a much more middle-class area. I had a comfortable adolescence.