Where Wham! stars are now from legal battles and divorce to heartbreaking phone call

Where Wham! stars are now from legal battles and divorce to heartbreaking phone call Wham! was founded by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, with Pepsi & Shirlie brought in on backing vocals. They went on to become one of the most popular bands of the 80s Four decades ago, Wham! took to the stage in Wembley Stadium for their legendary farewell concert, The Final. The massive, sold-out event on June 28, 1986 drew an audience of 72,000 adoring fans and featured legendary guest appearances from the likes of Elton John and Simon Le Bon. It marked the end of an incredible journey for two longtime friends, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, alongside their backing singers Pepsi and Shirlie. But what became of the iconic group since the music stopped? Let's take a closer look at their lives, triumphs and heartbreaks over the years. Andrew Ridgeley Following the split, Andrew Ridgeley took a radical step away from pop music. He relocated to Monaco to pursue a brief career as a Formula Three driver, before moving to LA to try his hand at acting. In 1990, he moved back to England and released his one and only solo album, Son of Albert. It wasn't a huge success and the star later admitted he struggled to know what to do after the band split. Speaking to Big Issue, he reflected: "I didn’t have the voice to compete with George, but that was fine. Being in a band was the full extent of my aspirations at 16 and I had realised it. I had no desires and no burning deep-held ambition to do anything else." Andrew briefly reunited with George on stage at Rock in Rio in 199, but despite discussing a reunion several times, a formal comeback never materialised. He published his bestselling memoir, Wham! George & Me, in 2019, and made a brief cameo in the rom-com Last Christmas. For the past 30 years, he has lived a quiet private life in Wadebridge, Cornwall. He once admitted that he found an immense sense of relief from stepping away from the claustrophobic nature of fame. He told the LA Times: "I was unprepared for the consequences of fame. I resented deeply the intrusion into my personal life, being chased from restaurant to restaurant. To step away from that was a welcome sort of relief." He remains active in the community, enjoying golf and surfing. Following George's death in 2016, he delivered an emotional tribute to his bandmate at the 2017 Brit Awards, later sharing the profound "void" the loss left in his life. "When I found out [George had died] it was a moment of disbelief," he told the Mirror. "I think that's a very good way of putting it. 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." He added, "If I could go back to any time in my life, it would probably be when Yog, Shirlie, and me were knocking around together as a very, very happy and affectionate trio." Helen "Pepsi" DeMacque-Crockett Helen 'Pepsi' DeMacque joined Wham! as a backing singer and dancer in 1983. Following the 1986 split, she and Shirlie Holliman formed the successful dup Pepsi & Shirlie, securing two UK Top 10 hits, with Heartache and Goodbye Stranger. Pepsi later recalled to the Guardian: "Shirlie had to persuade me we could make it as a duo. She said we should grab the opportunity. And she was right. Our first single was kept off the top spot by George’s duet with Aretha Franklin. But he made us feel like we were No 1; he felt really bad and took us out to dinner at the Ivy." After the duo took a hiatus in 1989, Pepsi moved to New Zealand, working in a gift shop, while also continuing with her music, collaborating with New Zealand electronic artist 50Hz (Jeremy Geor) and performing live with composer Rhian Sheehan. She also found success in musical theatre, starring in a UK tour production of the Josephine Baker story and the 1993 West End revival of the musical Hair. After her first marriage ended, she relocated to St Lucia - the island where her parents had emigrated from in the 1950s. Today, she and her husband James Crockett, operate a successful charter sailing business named Jus Sail. In January 2025, she published her first novel, Island Song, inspired by her parents' heritage. She remains very close to Shirlie, and the pair released a joint autobiography, Pepsi & Shirlie: It's All Black and White, in 2021. Reflecting on their bond, she told the Guardian: "When George died, Shirlie couldn’t make the call to me as she was too upset, so [her daughter] Harley did. It was a hard, hard time for all of us. I came back to the UK for his tribute at the Brits a few months later. At first it was really emotional to see Shirlie again, then you start having a little bicker and soon enough it creates a lightness that softens the load. "To this day, I still tell her to shut up when she’s being bossy, but it’s all done with total affection. Besides, I love seeing her do her thing, always busy, meddling, huffing and puffing. She will always be a sister to me." Shirlie Holliman Shirlie Holliman's pop career began by chance. Originally training to be a horse riding instructor, she developed hay fever and was left unsure of the future. Her then-boyfriend, Andrew Ridgeley, convinced her to come and dance at a local gig he was playing with his friend George Michael, changing her life forever. While she found success alongside Pepsi after Wham! ended, she found it difficult to balance the gruelling travel schedules with her personal life. She had begun dating Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp - after George Michael famously stepped in to help introduce them. Shirlie and Martin married in St Lucia in 1988, and the couple welcomed two children, Harley Moon Kemp and Capital FM star Roman Kemp. Following the birth of her daughter, Shirlie decided to stop performing on a regular basis. She told the Guardian: "After I got pregnant with Harley, I thought: 'I can't do this any more.' It would have been great if I’d stuck with it and earned more money, but it wouldn’t have been a substitute for a happy childhood. In 1995, the family faced an enormous chaos when Martin was diagnosed with two brain tumours. Shirlie put her career on hold to become his full-time carer through years of operations and radiotherapy, which left him with long-term epilepsy and dyslexia. Opening up about his condition on his son's podcast, he explained: "My dyslexia, because it came from a physical thing that happened in my brain, it wasn’t just about what I can read and what I can’t read. It is about me finding my way as well." The financial strain led to Shirlie being declared bankrupt in September 1996, after which she started working behind the scenes at George Michael's record label Aegean Records. In recent years, Shirlie has returned to the entertainment world alongside her family. She and Martin released a collaborative swin album in 2019, followed by a joint memoir in 2020. She also appeared in the BBC documentary Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency, supporting her son through his public battles with depression. In January, she delighted TV audiences by competing alongside her husband on the fourth series of The Masked Singer as "Cat & Mouse". George Michael After Wham disbanded, lead singer George went on to dominate the charts as a solo powerhouse. While his career earned him a glittering array of awards and accolades, his immense talent was shadowed by a turbulent private life and highly publicised addiction issues. George made his solo debut in 1987, with the chart topping Aretha Franklin duet, I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me), quickly followed by the monumental debut album, Faith. The record was a huge phenomenon, selling over 25 million copies worldwide and yielding the star four number one singles. A new icon was born. However, the gruelling 1988 world tour left George feeling exhausted and battling severe bouts of depression. Seeking a retreat from the immense spotlight, he famously refused to promote his 1990 follow-up album Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, even opting out of appearing in his own music videos. A bitter legal battle with his record label, Sony, ensued in 1992, with George claiming he had little creative control over his work, and was being treated as "no more than a piece of software". He ultimately lost the case, which stalled his for five years and derailed his momentum in the United States. The trial coincided with a profound personal grief. In 1993, George's partner Anselmo Feleppa died of an AIDS-related brain haemorrhage. The pair had met in Rio in 1991, and though they were deeply committed, George had not yet publicly come out as gay. In 1996, he released the poignant chart topper, Jesus to a Child, as a tribute to Feleppa. Grief struck again in 1997, when George's mother passed away, sending him into another deep depression. He later told GQ magazine that he had contemplated suicide during this dark period, crediting his new partner, Kenny Goss, with saving his life. In April 1998, George made global headlines after being arrested by an undercover police officer in a Beverley Hills public toilet. The incident prompted George to publicly declare his sexuality and confirmed his relationship with Kenny. Though his personal life remained under scrutiny - marked by a 2010 prison sentence for driving under the influence of drugs and a near fatal battle with pneumonia in 2011 - George continued to perform. He became the first artists to play at Wembley Stadium when it reopened in 2006. His final live performance took place at Earls Court in October 2012. Tragically, George passed away in his bed on Christmas Day 2016. A senior coroner later attributed his death to natural causes stemming from dilated cardiomyopathy myocarditis and fatty liver disease. He was laid to rest at Highgate Cemetery in north London, next to his beloved mother. His sister Melanie, who died after him three years to the day, is buried on the other side.