George Michael’s late sister leaves just £6million despite inheriting bulk of his £97million fortune
30 November 2022, 14:24
George Michael's sister left an estate worth £6million after she died without leaving a will.
The late pop legend's £97million fortune is thought to have been divided between his elder sisters Yioda, 63, and Melanie - who died on Christmas Day 2019 aged 59.
But probate papers show Melanie’s estate was valued at £6.2million after her affairs were settled.
Hairdresser Melanie is said to have struggled to come to terms with her brother's death, which occurred exactly three years earlier on Christmas Day 2016.
Melanie died after falling into a diabetic coma. She had struggled to overcome her brother’s death at the age of 53.
Following Michael's death at his home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, in 2016, his sister Ms Panayiotou, who never married and had no children, shared the £97million fortune left in his will with older sister Yioda.
Ms Panayiotou's body was found by her sister at the home in North London, previously owned by her brother. Sources said she had become a near recluse in her final years since her brother's death.
Like her brother, however, she was devastated by the death of their mother Lesley in 1997.
When Michael later began a highly publicised battle with drugs and alcohol, she devoted herself to preventing him being consumed by his demons.Sources say she was "heartbroken" and in "desperate pain" when she failed.
It was reported that Ms Panayiotou would be buried alongside her brother's unmarked grave at Highgate Cemetery, where the late siblings' mother is also buried.
Their father, Kyriacos 'Jack' Panayiotou, is still alive, along with older sister Yioda.
