Photo:Jeremy Craine/Shutterstock, Karwai Tang/WireImage
Jeremy Craine/Shutterstock, Karwai Tang/WireImage
As one-half of the popular pop duo Wham!,Andrew Ridgeleyhas been in the spotlight for decades.
While Ridgeley has kept his relationships fairly private through the years, he has been vocal about his lifelong friendship with Michael as well as the impactMichael’s sudden deathin 2016 had on him.
“Despite the pain of his death,George is still very much alive in my memory today,” Ridgeley wrote in his 2019 memoirWham! George Michael & Me. “A few years on from that tragic Christmas, I’ll sometimes catch myself thinking of our friendship and those years together as young kids in Wham! … And more often than not I’ll remember the laughs we enjoyed together when we were on our own in a bar, or backstage, or traveling, chatting over a beer, or messing around just in each other’s company. When it was just the two of us.”
From his Wham! days to now, here’s a look back at Andrew Ridgeley’s past relationships.
Shirlie Kemp
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Ridgeley and Shirlie Kemp (then Holliman) were in a relationship for two years at the height of Wham!’s fame. Shirlie served as backup singer and dancer for the group, having known both Ridgeley and Michael before they began collaborating professionally.
In 1997, Kemp toldThe Independent, “George used to make up all these dance routines which we’d do in nightclubs; we were either great or so bad that everybody cleared the floor. Wham! started out as an extension of the dance routines. George was the organiser, Andrew had all the charisma — I went out with Andrew for two years. My mum adored both of them.”
Jackie St. Clair
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Model Jackie St. Clair has had relationships with a few famous men, includingSimon Cowelland Ridgeley. She and Ridgeley reportedly had a short-lived romance in 1985, according to theDaily Mail.
In July 2022, the exes posed for photos together at her husband Carl Michaelson’s Summer Party in London. St. Clair and Ridgeley were pictured smiling with Ridgeley’s then-girlfriend Cronin.
Donya Fiorentino
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While it’s unclear how long Donya Fiorentino and Ridgeley were in a relationship or how serious their romance was, the pair were introduced after Fiorentino, who worked as a model as a teen, moved to London to pursue more work.
An interview inFlorida Key Treasuresexplains, “She moved to London first as a teenager and met Andrew Ridgeley, a member of music group Wham! and a Formula 1 race car driver. She lived with him in Monte Carlo for a while; she also lived in Tokyo.”
The pair were photographed together on a few occasions in 1985 and 1986, including at the model’s birthday party at Stringfellows nightclub in London.
Keren Woodward
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Ridgeley’s most significant relationship was with Bananarama lead singerKeren Woodward. The pair, who were together for 25 years, split in 2017.
Despite the end of their long-term relationship, Woodward told the outlet in 2017 that the two were maintaining a friendship. “Yes, we’ve gone our separate ways, these things happen, unfortunately, but we still speak,” she said. “In fact, I saw him recently when I was back home; we still both live in Cornwall. He’s actually coming to quite a few of the dates on the Bananarama tour.”
“We get on. But I haven’t seen him for a couple of months. He spends most of his time in London,” she told theDaily Mailin an interview.
Amanda Cronin
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In the summer of 2022, Ridgeley revealed that he and Bavarian model Amanda Cronin were in a relationship. Cronin had previously been married to businessman Mark Daeche, whom she divorced in 2019.
Ridgeley and Cronin attended Wimbledon together in June 2022. The following month, they attended Carl Michaelson’s Summer Party in London, posing for photos with Ridgeley’s ex St. Clair.
By May 2023, however, the couple had broken up. Cronin commented on the split in an interview with theDaily Mail, explaining, “I’m grateful for the time we’ve had together — he’s smart, funny, sexy and cool. Andrew is such a phenomenal guy, but I don’t think he’s really relationship material, although he has been in a very long relationship. I will get married again, and it won’t be to Andrew.”
source: people.com
