George Michael may or may not have seen this coming, but his millions of fans are still struggling to accept his death.
The '80s pop icon passed away suddenly last month when his dead body was found in his Oxfordshire home on Christmas Day by partner Fadi Fawaz. "ITs a xmas i will never forget finding your partner dead peacefully in bed first thing in the morning.." Fawaz tweeted. "I will never stop missing you xx."
He was 53 years old.
While the cause of death remains inconclusive, Michael's former manager Rob Kahane tells Billboard that the superstar always believed he would die at a young age.
In the tribute issue, out now, Kahane shares that his sister would sometimes read Michael's tarot cards. "He was obsessed with saying, ‘I know I'm going to die young,'" recalled Kahane. "He'd say, ‘It's OK. I've had a great life.'"
Kahane adds that there was a time Michael shared he was clinically depressed. While in the midst of a million-dollar lawsuit with Sony, the singer lost his partner of two years, Anselmo Feleppa, who died of an AIDS-related brain hemorrhage.
"When he lost Anselmo, I thought he was going to do something bad to himself. I had people stay with him," says Kahane. According to the mag, Michael came out to his family, and soon afterward, his mother told him she had terminal cancer.
Kahane states that he spoke to Michael shortly before his death, and that the star, who had recently finished an 18-month rehab stint in a Swiss facility, seemed fine.
"I called him, and he said, ‘I'm good.' He sounded fine," Kahane said, and added that they planned to have lunch in January. Kahane also heard a few of Michael's new songs, which he said were "totally pop, like something that would've been on Faith. The songs weren't depressing. That's why I thought everything was OK with him."
At the time of his death, Michael's rep said the singer died of heart failure and passed away "peacefully." Investigators later told E! News there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his passing.