It was a nice night on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip in October 2014 when I met the very The renewed star of the boy band Max George. We were at Rock & Reilly’s, an expensive but dingy Irish bar and restaurant, and the Wanted singer was unsteady and slurring his words.
Back then, the Mancun star was trying to achieve his dream of breaking into Tinseltown as an actor, hoping, like many before him, that his British accent and charm would ingratiate him with Americans.
Only the work wasn’t exactly immediate. So Max, then 26 years old, decided to hit the city night after night.
As the night progressed, things started to get raucous. And Max was so worn out that I took him off the stairs, where he was swinging, in case he fell.
Explaining in a sleepy voice that he was in Los Angeles for audition season, I suggested he leave the place, which was also popular with Jason Statham and rumored to be owned by former Tottenham Hotspur player Robbie Keane (who played for LA Galaxy in time).
Now I wonder if that moment was a warning sign for the star who in her heyday was quite the pop pin-up. The Wanted had announced a hiatus in January 2014, and Max was a permanent fixture on the London nightclub scene.
He confided in me that he was distraught because The Wanted had recently gone their separate ways. He had not separated from his fiancée, actress Michelle Keegan, either long before. He was devastated and it made me wonder if he was using alcohol to ease his pain.
Now it seems Max has been yet another victim of the boyband phenomenon: chewed up and spit out by the music industry machine, only to fall into the clutches of alcohol.
I was reminded of that 2014 encounter when, on Thursday night, the one-time heartthrob shared a photo of himself in his hospital bed.
Max, now 36, took to Instagram to tell his 370,000 followers that he is undergoing major heart surgery after a terrifying run to A&E.
On Thursday night, the former heartthrob shared a photo of himself in his hospital bed.
Despite his upcoming surgery, which means he will be in hospital over Christmas, he posed with a thumbs up and told his followers he considered himself “very lucky” but admitted the ordeal had given him a “huge shock.” “.
Max wrote: ‘Hello everyone. Yesterday I felt very bad and they took me to the hospital. Unfortunately, after some tests, they found out that I have some problems with my heart.
‘I have many more tests to determine the extent of the problems and what surgery I will need to recover.
‘It’s going to be a tough few weeks/months…and Christmas in a hospital bed wasn’t exactly what I had planned! But, as always, I am surrounded by love and support from my wonderful partner Maisie, her family, my family and friends… and I am 100 per cent in the best place. Although this is a huge shock and certainly a setback, it is something that I will face with all my might! “I consider myself very lucky that this was detected when it occurred.”
Max is now in a relationship with Maisie Smith, the EastEnders actress he met while starring on Strictly in 2020 and who, at 23, is 13 years his junior.
While dating Michelle Keegan, who was starring in Coronation Street at the time, he asked the show’s producers if The Wanted could perform in the Rovers Return.
To make matters even more tragic, Max’s health battle comes just two years after his The Wanted bandmate Tom Parker died of a brain tumor.
Max stopped drinking after his friend’s death, admitting that he had a problem and had been using alcohol as a crutch to relieve his anxiety.
But those who know him well fear that all those years of stardom and partying have contributed to his current suffering.
In fact, as a showbiz reporter, I used to regularly watch the boy band, consisting of Max, Tom, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness and Nathan Sykes, as they enjoyed a string of chart successes between 2010 and 2012, with hits like All Time. Depressed and glad to have come.
Max was always the loud and brash one.
Surprisingly, one night when I met up with the boys to interview them about an upcoming single, Max made an outlandish comment about my appearance. I attributed his comment to the fact that he had probably been drinking.
The band, who lived together in a luxurious apartment in the trendy East London neighborhood of Shoreditch, attended showbiz events every night.
On another occasion, I remember Max giddily telling me that while he was dating Michelle, who was starring in Coronation Street at the time, he had asked the show’s producers if The Wanted could perform in the pub from the soap, Rovers Return. His bandmates apparently looked horrified at his ridiculous request.
Siva Kaneswaran, Nathan Sykes, Tom Parker, Max and Jay McGuiness from The Wanted in 2021
But the star’s friends say he was like a “kid in a candy store” when he found fame in 2009 after Justin Bieber’s manager, American music mogul Scooter Braun, chose him as one of the five singers of the band.
After all, Max had a very normal upbringing in Swinton, a suburb of Manchester.
As a teenager he had aspirations of becoming a professional footballer. But those dreams were shattered after he lost a contract with Preston North End.
So his foray into music gave him some much-needed direction.
As he grew older, Max quickly gained a reputation as a womanizer.
He and Michelle dated for over a year before getting engaged. When they split, he was linked to actresses including Lindsay Lohan and Carmen Electra and The Only Way is Essex star Lucy Mecklenburgh. After dating footballer Ryan Giggs’ ex-wife Stacey, he is now in a relationship with Maisie Smith, the EastEnders actress he met while starring on Strictly in 2020 and who, at 23, is 13 years his junior.
“Max loved being in a boy band, it gave him everything a young man could want,” says a friend of the star.
“The problem is that it always seems like a lot of fun at the time, but in reality the damage that can be caused is enormous.”