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In one of his many candid moments, George Michael said he had spent the past 20 years trying to sabotage his glittering career via a series of humiliating drug and sex scandals.

'But my career just seems to right itself like a plastic duck in a bath and, in some ways, I resent that,' he said.

Hugely talented, highly intelligent and charming company, his many friends found the later years of his life infuriatingly chaotic.

Michael, who wrote and performed pop classics including Careless Whisper, Praying For Time and Faith, said himself that he suffered from two afflictions –'grief and self-abuse'.