Wham! doc reveals why George Michael hid his sexuality for so long

In 1998, George Michael came out to the world after he was arrested by an undercover policeman for engaging in a lewd act in a public bathroom.

But, long before that scandalous outing occurred at Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, the late ’80s pop heartthrob revealed his sexuality to his Wham! mate Andrew Ridgeley. 

It was July 1983 — a year before the chart-topping duo first went No. 1 with “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”

They had just wrapped filming the video for their post-disco single “Club Tropicana” in Ibiza, Spain.

“About six months before … I’d actually had something go on that made my attraction to men fairly clear,” Michael reveals in “Wham! The Documentary,” which premieres on Netflix July 5. “Once I realized that this was a part of my sexuality that I couldn’t ignore, I went to come out to Andrew.”

While Ridgeley says that his childhood friend’s confession “had absolutely no bearing” on their relationship, he and Wham! background singer Shirlie Holliman discouraged Michael from coming out to his family.

“I said I was gonna talk to my mom and dad and was persuaded in no uncertain terms that it really wasn’t the best idea,” Michael says in the doc. “I don’t think they were trying to protect my career or their careers. I think they were literally just thinking … ‘My God, your dad will hit the roof!’ ”

It was a “pivotal moment” that led the MTV pinup to remain in the closet.

“At that point in time, I really … wanted to come out, and then I lost my nerve completely,” says Michael. “And just by necessity, I went with full gusto into the progression of Wham!, creating a new character … forging an identity through my success.”

The seeds of that success were first planted when an 11-year-old Michael — then going by his birth name Georgios Panayiotou — met 12-year-old Ridgeley in 1975 at Bushey Meads School in North London. 

“I genuinely believe that there’s something predestined about it,” says Michael, who was a shy, awkward new student befriended by Ridgeley.

“I mean, the path might have been totally different had I sat down next to someone else that day.”

The pair formed such a brotherly bond that Ridgeley even gave Michael his own nickname.

“For me, he was Yog,” says Ridgeley, who is now 60. “Essentially, Yog and I saw things exactly the same way. Musically, we were joined at the hip.”

After starting a five-piece ska band called the Executive in high school, Michael and Ridgeley took off as a twosome.

In 1981, they came up with their name while line-dancing at the Beat Route club in London’s West End.

“I just started rapping, ‘Wham, bam, I am a man!’ ” recalls Ridgeley.

Those lyrics would end up on their 1982 debut single “Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do),” a bubblegum hip-hop bop on which Michael received songwriting credit as G. Panos (a shortening of his last name Panayiotou).

“There was a very urgent need for a stage name,” says Michael.

And thus, George Michael was born. “George is the English version of the Greek name Georgios,” explains Ridgeley. “Michael is the Christian name of one of our good friend’s dad’s.”

During the making of Wham!’s 1983 debut album “Fantastic,” it became clear that Michael was the big gun in the group.

“George’s songwriting was developing at an amazing, inconceivable sort of pace,” says Ridgeley. “My songwriting just wasn’t developing in anything like the same way his was, and it created a little bit of friction.”

On their second album, 1984’s smash “Make It Big,” Michael was the sole songwriter — as well as the lead singer — on hits such as “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” “Everything She Wants” and “Freedom.” And the No. 1 single “Careless Whisper” — a soulful ballad for which Michael went through 10 saxophone players before landing on Steve Gregory — set the stage for his ascension to solo superstardom. 

Just four years after their debut, Wham! said goodbye to their fans — and each other — with a farewell concert at London’s Wembley Stadium on June 28, 1986.

“Wham! was never gonna be middle-aged or be anything other than that essential and pure representation of us as youths,” says Ridgeley, whose duo lives on in the new compilation “Wham! The Singles: Echoes from the Edge of Heaven,” out July 7.

“I was happy for my friend,” adds Ridgeley, who went on to release one solo album, 1990’s “Son of Albert,” and even tried his hand at Formula Three motor racing. “He stood on the cusp of greatness.”

But after releasing his blockbuster solo debut “Faith” in 1987, Michael struggled without Ridgeley by his side.

“I was on my own,” says the “Father Figure” singer, who, after battling drugs and depression, died from heart and liver disease at 53 in 2016.

“And,” he reveals in the doc, “I had no idea how much I was gonna miss that support.”