Suicide cast a grim shadow over George Michael and his family after the deaths of his uncle and grandad.

It is believed the pop star, found dead on Christmas Day, lived in fear of history repeating itself.

His uncle Colin, who was believed to be secretly gay, killed himself on the day George was born in 1963. It is thought George’s heartbroken grandad then also committed suicide , and in the same way.

George once said: “They’d both put their heads in the gas oven. And, lucky old mum, she found both of them.”

The deaths prompted the singer to hide his sexuality from mum Lesley until he was 29. She lived in terror that he would inherit the “gay gene” so would suffer the same fate.

George revealed in an interview in 2007: “My mother had this fear of me being gay.

“She had this definite fear that I was going to be like her brother. She thought it meant I wouldn’t cope with life.”

George did have demons. He openly battled depression for decades, leaving him hooked on prescription drugs.

He was arrested several times for drug offences.

(Image: Alpha Press) (Image: Mirrorpix)

In 2010 he crashed his Range Rover into a branch of Snappy Snaps and was sentenced to eight weeks in jail for driving under the influence of drugs.

His life continued to spiral out of control. In 2013, he suffered head injuries after he fell out of a car doing 70mph on the M1.

The star, who was supposedly “checking the door” of the vehicle, was airlifted to hospital.

George was found dead in his bed at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxon, by his lover Fadi Fawaz, 43.

Tweets from Fadi’s Twitter account at the weekend suggested George, 53, had previously tried to kill himself.

Fadi later said his account had been hacked. He also said he was sleeping in his car on the night of his lover’s death, adding that George had died alone.

Speaking about his family’s demons, George revealed how his mum wanted to protect him from the “gay gene”.

He said she worried he would suffer mental health problems if his dad Kyriacos Panayiotou judged him.

George said: “She almost felt like she had brought the gene.

(Image: Phil Harris / Daily Mirror)

“So there were very pointed areas where she let my dad be – supposedly protectively – homophobic.

"There was this gay waiter who lived above our family restaurant and I wasn’t allowed to go to the top flat when he was in the restaurant... in case I caught something. In case I caught gay.

“Knowing my father, he couldn’t even consider he had a gay son because he is of his generation, a Greek Cypriot man.

“But my mother was afraid of my father’s judgment of me.

“I also now realise she was afraid that if the ‘gene’ was in me it would turn out the same.”

He revealed the depth of his family’s pain in the song My Mother Had a Brother on his 2004 album Patience.

The lyrics about his uncle’s suicide hinted it was due to repressed sexuality.

George once explained: “I didn’t know of the existence of my mother’s closest sibling until I was 16 or 17, because he had killed himself.

“The idea of so wanting to leave this world and at the same time not wanting to because it would spoil the pregnancy of your sister, it’s just horrible... And my mother told me she thought he was gay.”

(Image: Press Association)

On his mum hiding the truth, he said: “She spent years being so remorseful it’s impossible to hold that time against her.

“In the last 20 years of her life, I don’t think we had a cross word.”

After finding fame alongside Andrew Ridgeley in Wham! in the 1980s, George is thought to have tried to ensure other children did not suffer the same anxiety about their sexuality as he had.

Dame Esther Rantzen thinks he secretly gave over £2million to her Childline charity, which offers counselling to kids.

She said: “He approached us, offering to help... I got the impression it was tough for him when he was younger and he wanted to help children with similar problems.”

(Image: Getty)

In an interview, George gave his views on suicide.

He said: “I’d have to be mentally seriously disturbed to even consider suicide because of what it would do to the people already devastated from losing my mother.”

His mum died of cancer in 1997 four years after his lover Anselmo Feleppa died of an Aids-related illness.

George revealed his sexuality to his parents after Anselmo’s death.

He said: “I wrote them a four-page letter which was the easiest thing I’ve ever written considering it was the only unresolved issue – to come out to my parents.

“My mum said it was the most beautiful letter she had ever read, that it explained completely how I felt and why she didn’t have to worry about me.

“It was the easiest thing that should have been the most difficult.”

Samaritans (116 123) operates a 24-hour service available every day of the year. If you prefer to write down how you’re feeling, or if you’re worried about being overheard on the phone, you can email Samaritans at jo@samaritans.org.

Analysis by Dr Rozmin Halari, criminal psychologist

There is evidence that it is more likely for males to commit suicide than females but there are always a lot of factors to consider, particularly in George Michael’s family history’s case, with sexuality appearing to be one.

Then there’s the element of genetics, and the likelihood that George carried around beliefs he felt he had to suppress for much of his life, and this is probably one of the reasons he perhaps did not cope with his fame.

There’s a genetic component with suicide but sometimes also perhaps feelings of shame, guilt and confusion if something such as sexuality is being hidden.

You can have suicidal thoughts, and George may have done at times in his life, because he wanted to be gay and will have been proud of his sexuality, but felt he had to hide it for a period of time.

As a psychologist working in this area, I’ve dealt with people who have had relatives who have committed suicide, and even outside of genetics, there are other emotional, psychological factors that impact the person or people left behind.

But there is a genetic component to suicide - there is a link there. From my perspective as a psychologist, you have to be aware of that.