George Michael planning to 'marry' partner Kenny
Pop star George Michael plans to “marry” his long-termpartner Kenny Goss, he revealed tonight.
The former Wham! Singer said he and his lover of almost a decade hope to hold a small, private ceremony in Britain next year.
“I’m sure Kenny and I will be doing the old legal thing, but we won’t be doing the whole veil and gown thing,” said Michael.
“It’ll be relatively soon after it comes in, probably early next year.”
The singer, who was speaking after a screening of a revealing new documentary about his turbulent career, said he would be attending the civil partnership ceremony of Elton John and David Furnish next month, one of the first unions following the introduction of the Civil Partnership Act.
Michael said his “marriage” will be a “small, private ceremony”.
He added: “We’ll probably do it here, not abroad.”
Under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, the first gay marriages can be staged on December 21.
The Government has predicted that up to 22,000 gay couples will take civil partnership in the first five years.
Michael’s relationship with Goss, whom he met in 1996, features in the 95-minute film George Michael: A Different Story, which was shown in the UK for the first time tonight.
The singer was tight-lipped about his future career plans but hinted he might elaborate next Monday, when the film receives a gala screening in London.
He has spoken previously of his ambition to write a contemporary musical, perhaps for the screen.
In the documentary Goss speaks of how the pair met in a spa, and Michael, 41, admits he was not even sure if his future partner was gay when he first set eyes on him.
It was not until their second date together that he realised he definitely was.
Elton John speaks of how Goss must provide the same support to Michael as Furnish does to him.
The candid film, directed by Southan Morris, charts the highs and lows of Michael’s life and career, from his rise to fame as half of Wham! In the 1980s to his 1998 arrest for lewd conduct at a public toilet in Beverley Hills, which finally forced his homosexuality into the public domain.
Michael talks emotionally about the pain of losing his Brazilian boyfriend Anselmo to AIDS in the early 1990s, and the second blow of his mother’s death shortly after he met Goss.
He also speaks of his struggle to cope with the pressures of fame and living in the public eye.
After the premiere of the documentary at the Berlin Film Festival in February, Michael said he was quitting pop music and was set to “disappear”.
Michael said he hoped the film would please his fans.
“I felt like a lot of things that fans have had to speculate about before, they now know the truth about,” he said.
He also took a swipe at TV shows like Pop Idol, which he branded “basically interactive Opportunity Knocks”.
“I have no problem with that but it’s something else when they dominate the whole music scene,” he said.
He added that the balance was now being redressed, with rock acts and others “standing up for themselves”.
In his 21-year career Michael has sold 85 million records worldwide, notching up six No 1 singles in the US, 11 in the UK and seeing seven albums go to No 1.
