This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Artist News Legal
George Michael ruled to have died of natural causes
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 8 March 2017
George Michael died from a combination of heart failure and liver disease according to a coroner’s report.
As previously reported, Michael was found dead at his Oxfordshire home on Christmas Day last year. Police at the time said that the death was “unexplained but not suspicious”. An initial post-mortem then proved inconclusive, with funeral proceedings being delayed for further investigation.
But in a statement yesterday, Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire Darren Salter said that “there is a confirmed natural cause of death, being dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver, [therefore] the investigation is being discontinued and there is no need for an inquest or any further enquiries”.
Dilated cardiomyopathy is a condition, sometimes inherited, which stops the heart from being able to pump blood around the body efficiently, while myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle – a combination of which can lead to heart failure, as in this case. Fatty liver, meanwhile, is the accumulation of fat in liver cells.
A flood of tributes were made to Michael following his death, celebrating both his music and also his many often secret donations to both individuals and institutions in need.
Meanwhile the music industry’s big award shows in the US and the UK, the Grammys and the BRIT Awards, both paid tribute to Michael last month. Adele performed a version of ‘Fastlove’ at the Grammys, while Coldplay’s Chris Martin performed a virtual duet of ‘I Swear’ at the BRITs, following a speech by Michael’s former Wham! bandmates Andrew Ridgeley and Pepsi & Shirlie.
