The Wanted’s Max George Wrote a Will Before Heart Surgery: ‘I Thought I Was Going to Die’

Max George is reflecting on his recent hospitalization for issues with his heart.

“That first night I wrote a will, I thought I was going to die,” George, 36, said in a Saturday, January 11, interview with The Sun.

The Wanted frontman recalled waking up with freezing blue hands on December 11, 2024, while he was staying with his mom.

“I hadn’t been feeling myself for a few days, I started feeling a bit rough,” George said. “I couldn’t put my finger on it. I was quite lethargic and stuff, struggling to get out of bed. But I didn’t think it was anything serious.”

He continued, “Luckily I’d gone around to my mum’s to stay and I woke up and I remember looking at my hands and they were blue, and my arms were a grey colour and I was freezing cold. I struggled to even sit up in bed.”

When George’s mom saw him, she gasped and called a doctor. While George had a check-up and was sent home, his mom continued asking around for help.

“At this point I had a panicky feeling, but was also just absolutely knackered,” he said. “I couldn’t move my arms and the worst feeling was I felt like my throat was closing up. It felt like someone had their hands around my neck. Thank God I stayed at Mum’s house — she saved my life.”

Doctors informed George that something was “not right with the bottom part” of his heart and he would need a pacemaker.

“For some reason the rhythm is way off and the signal doesn’t seem to be getting from the top chamber of your heart to the bottom part, the bit that pumps the blood around your body,” he recalled the doctors telling him. “I was in complete shock.”

George called the experience “really scary” noting that it was “certainly not a place I thought I’d be in at 36.”

“I was awake all night, feeling a closing in my throat, I was really struggling to move and had really deep, slow breaths,” he said. “There was nothing that they could do to stop that. I could have lived maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months, but it could have been a few hours. We didn’t know.”

Two days after being admitted to the hospital, George’s heart rate dropped to 26 beats per minute.

“Friday, December 13, was the worst day that I had there,” he said. “My heart rate and my blood pressure dropped at the same time, and that was the biggest worry.”

He continued, “The consultants weren’t there on hand to do the operation in an emergency. It was quite close that night, it really felt like my neck was closing up and that’s when the sort of panic really kicked in. I felt like I was dying. It was the worst, I felt emotional.”

George was taken by an ambulance to a hospital on December 15, where he had a CT scan. He received a pacemaker three days later, with his partner Maisie Smith by his side as he became aware of his surroundings.

“I had a proper heartbeat by then as well. My heart rate started just shooting up. So I remember feeling my feet going tingly, because I think obviously the blood started to properly pump around,” he said.

He continued, “I was like, ‘Holy s—, I feel alive again,’ like it was a really nice feeling. It’d been so hard being away from Maisie, but she climbed on the bed, obviously she lay on the other side of my chest to my op, and put her head on me. We just had a cuddle for a couple of hours while I talked about football and we treated it like normal. I could feel butterflies again next to her.”