United Kingdom, March 30 -- Geri Halliwell "talked openly about grief" with George Michael.

The 52-year-old pop star struck up a friendship with late music icon George - who died on Christmas Day 2016 at the age of 53 - after she found fame as part of the Spice Girls in the late 1990s, and they were able to connect with each other, having both suffered the loss of a parent.

She told The Sunday Times: "I don't think about [being noticed], I don't see it. I learnt from George Michael how to deal with all that. He was an angel to me. He protected me from the minute we met. He'd lost his mother, I'd lost my father.

"And he was someone I could talk to openly about grief. We lived together twice and I'd play my music to him and he told me wh...