Wham! star Andrew Ridgeley looked incredible as he stepped out in London for a special screening of the upcoming documentary Wham! 10 Days in China on Tuesday. The 63-year-old was laid-back in white shorts and a black short-sleeved button-up shirt, paired with black sneakers.
Andrew sported cropped gray hair and an easy smile at the event, before viewing the highly anticipated film documenting the duo’s groundbreaking 1985 visit to China. The film features archival footage of their trip, as well as current interviews from fans and those involved in the tour, including Andrew.
Andrew formed Wham! with George Michael in 1981, and the duo went on to become one of the most successful pop acts of the ’80s. Their major hits include “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”, “Careless Whisper” and “Last Christmas”, the latter of which hit the second spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 2025.
The pair parted ways in 1986, yet remained close friends for the remainder of George’s life until he passed away in 2016 from heart and liver disease at the age of 53. While Andrew rarely steps into the spotlight nowadays and prefers a private life, he made a rare appearance at The Ivors Awards in May 2026 to accept the Academy Fellowship awarded posthumously to George.
The ’80s star shared with NME that his late friend “would have been immensely proud to have been counted amongst some of the artists and the songwriters, whose music he grew up with and which formed him as a songwriter”.
“It would have meant an awful lot to him over a lot of other awards,” he continued. Andrew added that George’s music still resonated with people a decade after his death as it spoke to “core human emotions”.
© Getty Images“I think it’s fundamentally about how we feel, and therefore that is timeless,” he said. “Whether it’s the type of vibrant vitality that Wham! represented, or the rather more deep, soulful [songwriting] and the questions that he asked as a more mature songwriter.”
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After the pop duo broke up, Andrew tried his hand at racing in Monaco and acting in Los Angeles, before returning to England to live a quieter life.
“I didn’t have the voice to compete with George, but that was fine,” he told The Big Issue of his decision to step away from the public eye. “Being in a band was the full extent of my aspirations at 16, and I had realized it. I had no desires and no burning deep-held ambition to do anything else.”
© Getty Images“I was thrilled to pieces with [George’s] development into the artist that he became,” Andrew added. “He was my best friend. It is so alien and bizarre to me that anyone would feel otherwise. I genuinely don’t understand it.”
© Getty ImagesThe Grammy nominee shared with the outlet that George’s untimely passing left a “void” in his life that has never been filled. “When I found out [George had died], it was a moment of disbelief,” he recalled.
“I think anyone finds it difficult to comprehend when someone they’re so close to passes away; it’s an inconceivable moment. It leaves a void in your life. I’d love to just sit and have lunch and play Scrabble with [him] again.” Andrew was in a relationship with Bananarama singer Keren Woodward from 1990 to 2017, and after their split briefly dated Real Housewives of London star Amanda Cronin from 2022 to 2023.
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