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.

Both of us knew the band had run its course. We were both unhappy doing it, but I think the way Andrew [Ridgeley] was being treated as the less important half of the duo had finally taken its toll on him.

I was supposed to be a real Thatcherite. Just by dint of being a first-generation immigrant and having not had money, and then suddenly having it - and getting on planes and going to Ibiza and sitting around in thongs. But actually nothing I was writing or doing was even vaguely Thatcherite.

Yet ["One More Try" ] really seemed to connect with people, which is a wonderful thing and a marvelous coincidence.

The most common misconception people have had in the past is about my own control and calculation of my career.

I have two sisters. My father is Greek and comes from a family of seven. My mother is English and comes from a family of five.

I want the people who came to listen to have a good time as well. So it's a matter of playing a control game when all I really want to do is go out there and sing.