Fadi Fawaz found boyfriend George Michael star dead in his bed at his Oxfordshire home on Christmas morning. Photo / Instagram
For a man already suffering the raw pain of grief, Fadi Fawaz - the last boyfriend of singer George Michael - has had a tumultuous week.
Fadi, who found the 53-year-old star dead in his bed at his Oxfordshire home on Christmas morning, is due to be questioned for the second time by police in a bid to piece together the events surrounding the last week of George Michael's life.
Detectives now suspect the singer died of a drugs overdose.
Fadi, 40, who had a five-year relationship with the star, has been angered by suggestions that he was a 'leech' on George, and also by claims that the couple had split up 18 months before the singer's death, the Daily Mail reports.
"We were very much in love, very much together," he told the Mail. "Why would I be there [in Goring-on-Thames] if we weren't together? I was there the last day of his life. I was there."
Fadi also insists that the police, who first questioned him over the death on Wednesday this week, have been "amazing" and "supportive".The former hairdresser, who has been trying to make a career as a photographer, told them he spent Christmas Eve with the singer but fell asleep in his car that night and only discovered that he was dead when he went to wake him the following morning.
When news of the death was announced on Christmas Day, George Michael - who had a history of drug abuse - was said by his manager to have died of "heart failure".
However, an initial post mortem examination was inconclusive. Now toxicology tests will be done alongside a report for the coroner, aiming to discover what was behind his early death.
Yesterday, it emerged that Fadi will be questioned again by police, who will be aiming to put together a full picture of the singer's movements and state of mind in the last week of his life.
They have already taken a statement from a photographer who took pictures of Fadi going in and out of George Michael's house with a take-away coffee on December 24, and are expected to speak to George's family and friends.
Fadi said: "The police have been amazing. They have been supportive. They have done what normally happens when someone dies. They have not been accusing me, never; they have been very supportive."
However, questions continue to swirl around Fadi Fawaz - and not just why he slept in his car rather than in the singer's home on the night before George's death. He has also been accused of being a former porn actor.
After he and George Michael started dating in 2011, numerous websites suggested he had previously appeared in a gay porn film, Matchmaker, under the name Isaac Mazar. It is a claim that Fadi denies.
Yesterday, however, Felix Kamp, the CEO of the film company Cazzo, which made the movie, told the Mail: "We have had a lot of inquiries and, yes, I can confirm Fadi is Isaac, who starred in the Matchmaker movie."
In addition, some in George's camp feel Fadi's social media activity since George's death has been, at best, ill-advised.
On New Year's Day, a string of posts appeared on Twitter asserting that he and George were together 24/7 and that the singer had repeatedly tried to take his life and had finally succeeded. But the posts were quickly taken down, with Fadi claiming his account had been hacked.
Now he appears to have been cast out by George Michael's professional team, with George's lawyers instructing him to remove a clip of an unreleased song, This Kind Of Love, which he posted directly after the death in tribute to his lover.
There is also a belief among sources close to George that Fadi will not be a beneficiary of George's will, which will divide the singer's £105 million fortune. His sisters and charities - including Childline and the Terrence Higgins Trust - are said to be in line to benefit.
And speculation is rife that Fadi will not be able to continue living in George's £4 million central London mews house near Regent's Park for much longer.
The star bought the house in 1998. In 2006, he lent it to Geri Halliwell as a place to stay away from prying eyes after she had her daughter Bluebell.
Neighbours believe Fadi has been staying there on and off for several months, which might suggest that the two men were in an arm's length romance.
So who is Fadi Fawaz? And what is the truth about his relationship with George Michael?
He was raised, along with his three brothers and two sisters, in Lebanon, where civil war was raging from 1975 to 1990. It is an experience that appears to have marked Fadi deeply.
"My goal is the truth we tend to ignore," he declares darkly on his LinkedIn profile. He adds, with a nihilistic flourish: "I believe in today; tomorrow is not guaranteed."
And his LinkedIn biography features distressing photographs of people in pain, including one of Fadi himself apparently crying tears of blood. The accompanying commentary concludes: 'Death is destined when life is created.'
A friend of George Michael's said: "Certainly, when I met him [Fadi], he was very, very dark.
"George was dark as well. Perhaps they found that in each other, and that is what bonded them."
Indeed, theirs was an angsty liaison marked by depression, addiction and medical dramas.
Fadi, who left Lebanon for Australia before moving to London, spent much of the romance supporting the singer through various crises.
These included two lengthy rehabs, plus stays in hospital for a bout of pneumonia which nearly killed him, a tumble from a moving car which also nearly killed him, and an unexplained incident in 2014 which saw him removed to hospital by ambulance from his London home.
But it was also a romance conducted very much in the shadow of George's long-term love affair with Kenny Goss. For at least the first couple of years of their liaison, George was still mourning the end of his romance with the Texan art gallery owner and businessman.
While Fadi and George were first pictured together leaving London's exclusive restaurant Nobu in 2009, visitors to his Hampstead home in 2011 were still being greeted by cushions on the living room sofa which read "George and Kenny" and were assured by the singer that the two of them were still an item.
Speaking during a concert in August 2011, though, George said he and Kenny had actually split up two-and-a-half years previously, and that he had been dissembling to cover the pain. He said then: "I love him very much. This man has brought me a lot of joy and pain.
"My love life has been a lot more turbulent than I've ever let on, and I'm so sad about my relationship with Kenny. I'm sorry for any pain."
How must his unacknowledged new lover Fadi - who watched from the wings on that tour - have felt?
And a few months later, when George fell ill with pneumonia, Kenny made a dash to the singer's bedside. Fadi was also present.
In November last year, barely a month before his death, it was reported that George and Kenny had rekindled their friendship and were contemplating giving their romance another try.
However, George's PR, Connie Filipello, denied the reports and said that George was still with Fadi. So just what is the truth?
A friend of the singer said this week: 'George kept a lot of secrets, which is why it's impossible to know if he and Fadi were still in a romance or not. He kept everyone in the dark.'
However, Fadi's brother Hassan, who lives in Australia, insists they were together, and a former colleague of Fadi's, Joe, told me this week that they were "an amazing couple" and very much together.
Fadi was 14 years old when he moved with his family to Queensland, Australia. He studied at the Elite Education Institute in Sydney and then seems to have followed his older brother Daniel - who trained at the Toni and Guy Academy - into a career in hairdressing.
Fadi later moved to London, where he ended up working as a freelance celebrity stylist, tending the hair of singer Katherine Jenkins and American girl group The Pussycat Dolls for photo shoots.
He also worked at the Daniel Mikhael salon in Marble Arch, London, from 2008, and was still officially on the staff there as recently as last year.
A former colleague, Joe, who is a stylist at the salon, said: "I have known Fadi for eight years. I knew of him when he was in Lebanon. We didn't grow up in the same village, but we were not far off. We are very good mates. He stopped working here a year ago, but he visits the salon quite a lot because we are friends. He's a friend of mine, so he was great to work with.
"George Michael used to come into the salon and I met him as a friend. They were an amazing couple." He added: "Of course it's been difficult for Fadi, what has happened with George. As a couple, they were very strong."
Fadi's brother Hassan said: 'We don't look at George as [famous] but just someone who's a nice guy and loves my brother and my brother loves him,' he said.
His brother Daniel said: "For me, George was family. I am devastated." He added that his thoughts and prayers are with his "sweet brother".The George Michael camp is very much against any suggestion of a drug overdose suicide, having said in a statement on Christmas Day that the singer died simply of "heart failure".
Toxicology is expected to settle that argument in due course.
In the meantime, Fadi Fawaz is in an invidious position - branded a 'leech' by unnamed friends of George, under suspicion from some fans who wished he had somehow been able to save the singer, under attack from the lawyers who remind him that he owns nothing George created, and living in a home to which he may have no claim.
What's next for unfortunate Fadi?
Additional reporting: Neil Sears in London and Allan Hall in Berlin
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