James From 'Vanderpump' May Have Been In The Will Of A Famous Relative

Everyone in Hollywood knows someone famous — it’s just what happens when you’re in a city that makes stardom its main export. James Kennedy may have known Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd from when he was a child, but they’re not even the biggest names in his extended “family” tree. Turns out that he’s the late singer George Michael’s godson, too. Did James inherit money from George Michael? He talked a bit about his godfather’s passing on the Vanderpump Rules reunion.

Knowing George Michael wasn’t a random thing for James — according to Bravo, James’ dad, Andros Georgiou, grew up in Cyprus with George Michael, as their fathers were friends, and when Michael became the Wham! star he was known as in the 1980s, Georgiou was right there with him. He managed Michael and started a record label with him. Michael was the godfather to Georgiou’s three boys — James being one of them, his younger brothers the other two — and so James basically grew up with musical royalty going to his, I don’t know, football matches and school plays and all that. According to Bravo, Michael even helped give James his first bath, so if that’s not family, what is? Unfortunately, Georgiou and Michael had a falling out in 1998 after Michael was arrested for “allegedly engaging in a lewd act in a public restroom in Will Rogers Park in Beverly Hills,” and their relationship wasn’t really the same after that.

That said, on the second episode of the Vanderpump Rules reunion, Andy Cohen told James that he had heard something about Michael leaving his entire fortune to his godchildren (Michael had no kids of his own), and James said that he couldn’t comment because he didn’t know anything about it. It wasn’t a “I can’t talk about this” sort of “no comment,” but a, “I have no idea what the result is going to be” sort of comment. James really must have no news on this, because in December 2017, James said on Watch What Happens Live, "Yeah I've heard about that. Honestly I've been told nothing so far, so those are all just tabloids talking the usual stuff.” I guess James will have to wait and see what happens.

James has fond memories of Michael. "He's obviously sculpted my life in a way that he's touched many people in his music,” James told Andy Cohen on WWHL. “He was a family member and was there when we were growing up, so it was two sides, I guess. His music changed the world, but he also was just a normal, beautiful person at home." And even though Georgiou and Michael had a falling out, James says, it doesn’t mean that his dad isn’t broken up about Michael’s 2016 death. "[It was a] very sad time. My dad actually recently moved back to London, so I was gonna go visit him and basically knock on George's door in the New Year but a week later, on Christmas, obviously [we] got the news, and it was heartbreaking,” James said on Watch What Happens Live. “I still had to come out to England and pretty much spent time with my dad and just talked, and it was a crazy, crazy time."

It is probably comforting to James that he was able to be there for his father in such a crazy time — between James’ parents’ divorce and James’ dad’s childhood bestie passing, it hasn’t been the best of times for his family. Sometimes, these inheritance things take a long time to figure out, but if it is true that James and his brothers are the heirs of Michael’s estate, it shows that even though Michael and Georgiou weren’t getting along, Michael still put the kids in his life first.