More than a week after George Michael's untimely death on Christmas Day, stories of his unsung acts of kindness and generosity continue to emerge. In a touching segment on This Morning on Tuesday, it was revealed that the singer anonymously sent a large cash donation to enable one lady to have IVF treatment after seeing her appearance on the show – resulting in the birth of This Morning's 'miracle baby'.
Host Phillip Schofield began by revealing that George, 53, had often watched the programme and would get in touch to help viewers in need. "He had a very close connection with this show and often spent, although you might not believe it, often spent his mornings watching – even phoning in on occasions, and you may remember that he was the mystery man that donated £50,000 to one of our Christmas appeals," he said.
George Michael anonymously paid for Jo Maidment's IVF treatment
"But what has never been revealed before today, and only a small handful of us knew, is that George made another significant donation, and with his family's blessing – and we stress this – we can now reveal that after watching the plight of one of our viewers who was denied fertility treatment on the NHS, he paid for her to have IVF… which resulted in our 'miracle This Morning baby'."
Appearing on the show was the mother in question, Jo Maidment, who said of the star, "I can't ever thank him enough for what he has done for me and my husband."
Jo became a mother to daughter Betsy in 2012
She explained: "I came on in 2010… And I was home for two days and got a phone call from a PA saying a businessman would like to donate some money for one cycle of IVF. I didn't believe it at first… And it took me a good few days to respond because that wasn't what I came on the show for, I wanted to help other people in my position. But then we agreed to it, because [the PA] said it was what this particular man wanted."
After revealing that the first try resulted in a miscarriage, Jo said: "We received flowers from him and her after that, but we had frozen eggs from the IVF cycle and we saved up enough money to have them put back a year later, and then in 2012 we had Betsy."
Soon after welcoming her baby, Jo receieved flowers and a card from George
On finding out who the generous mystery businessman was, Jo added: "It was a couple of days after we came home with Betsy and we had loads of cards and flowers, and there was a massive bouquet that came, and I read the card that said: 'Congratulations to you both. Lots of love to Betsy. Love from Michelle [the PA] and George Michael (AKA Anonymous) xx'… Me and my husband read it hundreds of times to believe it."
She said: "I was really upset when I found out [George had died] because I can never thank him personally, and he never got to meet her. Betsy will know when she is old enough."
Phillip then told her: "Well, I think the thank you is that Betsy is there and he knew quietly that he's helped that to happen. It's a lovely story, thank you for sharing it and thank you also to George's family as well at this really difficult time for allowing us to tell the tale."