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George's family are straight talkers

George Michael. Picture: Supplied

Veteran British pop star *George Michael *is still having to fend off questions about his sexuality from members of his family who are convinced he is not really gay.

The Careless Whisper hitmaker, right, was forced to "come out" as a homosexual after he was arrested for lewd behaviour in a public restroom in a Beverly Hills park in 1998, and he has lived openly as a gay man ever since.

However, the 50-year-old admits some relatives simply refuse to believe that he isn't straight.

"For some strange reason, my gay life didn't get easier when I came out. Quite the opposite happened, really," he tells the BBC. "The press seemed to take some delight that I previously had a 'straight audience', and set about trying to destroy that.

"And I think some men were frustrated that their girlfriends wouldn't let go of the idea that George Michael just hadn't found the 'right girl'.

"Which is still what a lot of my extended family still think!"

He went on to have a 13-year relationship with *Kenny Goss * but the couple split in 2011.

Now single, George also claims he has no regrets about keeping his sexual orientation a secret all those years ago.

"In the years when HIV was a killer, any parent of an openly gay person was terrified," he says.

"I knew my mother well enough that she would spend every day praying that I didn't come across that virus. She'd have worried like that."